Content creator harassment on OnlyFans and other platforms is becoming an increasing problem which threatens people’s safety, dignity and livelihood. With more and more individuals making their living creating content, there is a worrying accompanying rise in online abuse. Whether it’s unwanted messages, hateful comments or disturbing behaviour such as stalking, doxxing or extortion, none of it is okay. Whatever their line or place of work, everyone deserves safety, dignity and respect. Fortunately, Cybertrace is able to assist content creators experiencing harassment on OnlyFans and other platforms. Our team of experienced investigators can turn the tables on anonymous offenders via a rigorous and comprehensive technical investigation. By assessing the incident and identifying the offender, we provide our clients with the evidence they need to take action. Contact Cybertrace today to stand up to cyberbullies and reclaim your power.
What is OnlyFans and How Does it Work?
Billing itself as a subscription-based social media platform, OnlyFans allows users to share photos and videos with paying customers. While hosting everything from music videos to fitness, cooking and beauty tutorials, it is most well-known for explicit adult content. Content creators charge their subscribers a monthly fee between $4.99 and $49.00 as well as offering additional customised pay-per-view posts. While average earnings on OnlyFans are around $180, top accounts can make $10,000s/month, with the company taking a 20% cut. Launched in 2016, the British-based site has grown significantly during the pandemic, reaching a market valuation of more than $1bn. It boasts more than 120 million users worldwide, including celebrities like Cardi B and Bella Thorne. Alongside this rapid rise, however, content creator harassment on OnlyFans has emerged as a concerning and fast-growing problem.
Different Forms of Content Creator Harassment on OnlyFans
According to a recent BBC news article, OnlyFans has been plagued with reports of harassment, abuse and impersonation scams. While the latter falls under the broad umbrella of romance scams, the former can take many different forms. Sadly, studies show that about 70% of content creators reported experiencing bullying, sexual harassment and identity attacks. As is usually the case with cyberbullying and online harassment, anonymity is a key enabler of abuse. So what do the different forms of content creator harassment on OnlyFans and other platforms look like?
Direct Harassment and Online Abuse
Many OnlyFans content creators report that so-called “fans” target them because they do not wish to respond to a specific punter’s request. At other times, there doesn’t seem to be a specific reason at all. Instead, perpetrators may be projecting unfiltered primal emotions such as rage, fear, cruelty or jealousy onto a public figure. Whatever the motive, online abuse is always hurtful and undeserved and comes in different forms and via various channels. Some offenders send unwanted, disgusting or degrading messages via the OnlyFans messaging feature, email or other social media. Others leave hateful comments on a content creator’s OnlyFans posts or their other social media accounts like Facebook or Instagram. Finally, some perpetrators misuse the dedicated OnlyFans gift feature to send offensive unsolicited gifts. Whatever the medium, offenders think they wear a cloak of (online) invisibility to carry out content creator harassment on OnlyFans.
Pirating and Hacking
Unfortunately, content creator harassment on OnlyFans does not stop there but takes other forms, too. One of those is the pirating of content and risks of data breaches due to hacking. This is particularly frustrating for OnlyFans creators since the site’s key appeal is that photos and videos are locked behind a paywall. For adult entertainers, in particular, this is a rare opportunity to monetise and control their own content. However, while pirating content is illegal and against the site’s terms of service, it happens frequently, especially to women. The BBC reports that nearly all of the creators they spoke with said their images had been leaked and traded by men in other social media and messaging forums. There are also significant risks around data protection breaches and hacking, with personal information and access to images/videos at stake. While a problem in itself, this can also lead to further threats.
Stalking, Doxxing and Extortion
Probably the most serious form of content creator harassment on OnlyFans, stalking, doxxing and extortion puts creators’ safety at risk. Stalking, or the unwanted and repeated surveillance of another person, can take place online (cyberstalking) or in person. As such, cyberstalking involves harassing and intimidating someone by “following” them across multiple social media platforms against their wishes. If doxxing, or the release of private/identifiable information about a person without their consent, is involved, it gets even worse. In that case, stalking can cross from virtual worlds into real life, with all the scary safety implications that entails. Finally, the threat of releasing personally identifiable information and/or explicit images and videos to family members, work colleagues or acquaintances in exchange for sexual favours or financial gain constitutes the crime of sexual extortion. It is wrong but what can content creators do about it?
What Can Content Creators on OnlyFans do?
Similar to cyberbullying and harassment on other platforms, OnlyFans content creators can block and/or report offending users. However, there are three limitations to this approach. Firstly, OnlyFans is a largely unmoderated site which uses an automated system criticised for not having quick-enough response times. Secondly, OnlyFans may inadvertently incentivise fan harassment since it automatically refunds subscriptions for those who are blocked. Some fans may use this tactic deliberately to avoid paying their subscription dues at the end of a month! Finally, a common problem across social media platforms is the ease and anonymity of account creation. As a result, blocked fans can immediately create new accounts and continue “following” the target of their harassment. All this brings us back to the underlying problem identified earlier in this article: the anonymous nature of these accounts. As content creator harassment on OnlyFans demonstrates, anonymity equals impunity. But is there a way forward?
What Cybertrace Offers Victims of Content Creator Harassment on OnlyFans
If you want the harassment, stalking, threats and blackmail to stop, you need to actually identify the offenders. Once an investigation has done that, you then have options to hold them accountable for their actions. Depending on the situation, you could confront perpetrators directly, have your lawyer send cease-and-desist letters or involve the police/press charges. Online harassers like to hide behind the internet’s supposed anonymity and don’t like having the spotlight shone on them. In our experience, simply confronting perpetrators directly with the fact that you know who they are (and are prepared to release this information publicly) is an effective way of putting an immediate stop to the harassment. In addition, if a crime and/or loss of income are involved, you can sue or press charges.
Cybertrace’s social media investigations offer your best chance of finding those responsible behind fake or anonymous accounts. We combine deep investigative experience and analytical capacity with cutting-edge technological expertise. For example, our own highly specialised custom-built tools allow us to extract user information such as an IP address. No other service uses the same tools and the social engineering our investigators deploy to trap harassers and abusers. If you want to put a stop to content creator harassment on OnlyFans, you have come to the right place. Contact Cybertrace today to discuss how we can help you get justice and peace of mind.
