OnlyFans confirms new caps on tips and pay-per-view content, but says the changes are unrelated to Bella Thorne

• September 1, 2020

OnlyFans confirmed new rule changes to The Verge today that could impact how much money creators make on the platform, as well as how quickly they get paid. The new rules include a $100 cap on paid private messages, compared to $200 before, and a $50 cap on pay-per-view posts for creators who don’t charge a subscription, compared to $200 previously.

There’s also a new maximum tip price of $100 for the first four months a creator is active on the site. After that point, it increases to $200, which was the standard for all creators up until this point. OnlyFans is also lengthening the pending payout period from seven to 21 days for creators in 14 countries, including India, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Venezuela.

OnlyFans says the changes reflect an “evolving process” that’s meant to “ensure payment protection for both content creators and users.”

The changes come only a couple weeks after actress Bella Thorne joined the service and made $1 million in subscription money in just a day. During her week on the platform, she also supposedly charged $200 for a pay-per-view post that didn’t deliver on promised nudity, fueling rumors that the platform made its changes because people wanted refunds after spending a significant amount of money for the content. OnlyFans creators spoke out about the changes and blamed Thorne, saying this would impact how they make money. For its part, OnlyFans says these rumors are unsubstantiated.

“We can confirm that any changes to transaction limits are not based on any one user,” an OnlyFans spokesperson said in a comment to The Verge last week.

Still, Thorne apologized on Twitter earlier this week for joining the service and apparently only doing so for film research purposes — not because she needs to make a livelihood.

“I wanted to bring attention to the site, the more people on the site the more likely of a chance to normalize the stigmas, and in trying to do this I hurt you,” she tweeted. “I have risked my career a few times to remove the stigma behind sex work, porn, and the natural hatred people spew behind anything sex related. I wrote and directed a porn against the high brows of my peers and managers because I WANTED to help with the stigma behind sex.”

She apologized for joining the platform and potentially hurting people who rely on the service to make money. She also said she was meeting with OnlyFans to learn about the new restrictions.

Sean Baker, who was widely reported to be working on a film with Thorne, distanced himself from the project after the fallout from the rule changes. “I am an ally and have literally devoted my career to tell stories that remove stigma and normalize lifestyles that are under attack,” he wrote. “I would never do anything that could possibly hurt the community.”

Since its launch in 2016, OnlyFans has become synonymous with sex work and nudity and grew in popularity during the pandemic as celebrities, like Cardi B, joined the service. Beyoncé shouted OnlyFans out during a song with Megan Thee Stallion, and Instagram influencers, like Caroline Calloway, also joined the platform to sell nudes. Sex workers who found a paying audience on the platform are now wary of its possible transition to less explicit creators, which could push it to ostracize and undervalue sex workers’ contributions and reliance on the site.

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OnlyFans confirmed new rule changes to The Verge today that could impact how much money creators make on the platform, as well as how quickly they get paid. The new rules include a $100 cap on paid private messages, compared to $200 before, and a $50 cap on pay-per-view posts…