OnlyFans says it empowers content creators, particularly women, to monetize sexually explicit images and videos in a safe online environment. But a Reuters investigation found women who said they had been deceived, drugged, terrorized and sexually enslaved to make money from the site. The findings are based on redacted U.S. police complaints and international court files, lawsuits and interviews with prosecutors, sex-trafficking investigators and women who say they’ve been trafficked.
In one prominent case, influencer Andrew Tate, with millions of followers worldwide on social media, is accused of forcing women in Romania to produce porn for OnlyFans and pocketing the profits. He has denied the charges.
Generating less attention are cases Reuters identified in the U.S., where some women endured weeks or months of alleged sexual slavery in ordinary-looking homes in quiet communities. The victim sometimes was a fiance or girlfriend, abused to pad the household budget, fund a couple’s retirement or cover children’s expenses, according to accounts in police or court files. Reuters is withholding the names of women who say they have been trafficked.
While I obviously do think such platforms should take measures to curb abuse like this, I am also wary of penalizing them for a phenomenon they don’t cause and can’t really control. The sad fact is that sex traffickers are always going to take advantage of platforms like this, no matter how well-meaning said platforms are, and holding them accountable for preventing it risks making said ventures impossible as business ventures. There needs to be a reasonable standard for what we expect from these companies in terms of safeguards against this kind of abuse.