Bella Thorne’s OnlyFans success is leading to severe financial consequences for sex workers who rely on the platform for income.
The actress and pornography director broke records by making $2 million in less than a week since she launched her OnlyFans account. Although she said she wouldn’t post nudity, she sent her subscribers a Pay-Per-View (PPV) message Thursday allegedly advertised as a nude photo. The message was priced at $200.
When fans paid the fee and opened the photo, they were treated to an image of Thorne apparently topless and covering her chest. Disgruntled at the lack of nudity, many who paid for the photo issued chargebacks on their credit cards, requiring OnlyFans to refund them the $200 viewing fee.
Workers claim that after the incident, OnlyFans began capping PPV messages at $50, and is only allowing its creators to receive tips of up to $100. In addition, creators in certain countries would only be allowed to withdraw their OnlyFans revenue, which was previously held 7 days after subscribers pay for their content, after 30 days.
In a statement to Mashable, an OnlyFans representative said that any changes to transaction limits “are not based on any one user,” like Thorne.
“Transaction limits are set to help prevent overspending and to allow our users to continue to use the site safely,” the statement continued. “We value all feedback received since this change was implemented and we will continue to review these limits.”
Stephanie Michelle, a sex worker who specializes in NSFW cosplays, said the changes especially affect creators who make a bulk of their revenue from commissioned PPV photoshoots.
“If someone wanted a personal photo shoot or video, the normal way to go about this is a subscriber will direct message a creator and ask for personal content,” Stephanie Michelle said in a Twitter DM. Creators will often set higher rates depending on how much personalization and effort these requests require. “Now, overnight, OnlyFans has capped this commission allowance at $50…This basically has a lot of girls unable to give their services to subscribers at their set rates, forcing everyone to lower our income level.”
Stephanie Michelle sees the change in policy as a devaluation of sex workers’ time and effort. She noted that if she wanted to charge $100 for a personalized set, a subscriber would have to send two message requests.
“Although this doesn’t seem like a big deal, it’s an extra step for people and that can be a deterrent,” Stephanie Michelle said. “We have a website telling us how much our services are worth, $50. OnlyFans started as a website where we, the creators, get to decide how much our services costs, and now that freedom is being taken away.”
Thorne told the Los Angeles Times and Paper that she’s using her OnlyFans experience as research for a movie she was working on about digital sex work. She added that the revenue from her subscriptions, which start at $20 per month, would fund her production company and be donated to charity. (Thorne didn’t specify which charity or cause.)
Sex workers blame Thorne for OnlyFans’ change in policies. In a screenshot of an Instagram DM circulating on Twitter, an anonymous Instagram user condemned Thorne for the lost income.
“She singlehandedly fucked so many sex workers,” the DM complained.
I challenge Bella Thorne to donate the proceeds from her shitty exploitive movie, her OnlyFans experience, and out of her own pocket to sex workers in need who have been devastated by the impact of her carelessness 🥰
— beckpack (@ChaoticThey) August 28, 2020
Bella Thorne isn’t gonna get her IG shut down for advertising her OnlyFans.
Bella Thorne isn’t going to get her PayPal, venmo, or other payment platform frozen.
Bella Thorne isn’t going to face workplace discrimination due to her public use of a sex work platform.
— hoes annoyed (@fiercenaked) August 26, 2020
OF was rly good for like, normalizing sex work but it’s become so saturated that legitimate, serious sex workers are having their biggest platform completely nerfed by celebrities like Bella Thorne and it’s honestly so frustrating I want to SCREAM
— alexa play fuck tha police by N.W.A (@yrlocalpornstar) August 28, 2020
bella thorne fucked over the onlyfans platform for people for the sake of “research” and no regards for people who use it for an income let alone sex workers who MADE IT POPULAR IN THE FIRST PLACE
— onlyfans.com/kiwibb (@kayyfiree) August 27, 2020
Thorne isn’t the only mainstream star to disrupt sex work by joining OnlyFans. She launched her account at the height of a celebrity migration to the platform, which allows creators to monetize their content based on a tiered subscription system similar to Patreon. But the influx of “civilian” creators — a term sex workers use to refer to people who don’t do sex work — has raised concerns in the sex work community because OnlyFans was already very competitive. While the novelty of OnlyFans is normalizing sex work in an otherwise prude culture, it’s also saturating the market and making it more difficult for Black, LGBTQ, and other sex workers of marginalized identities to make a living.