OnlyFans, a social media platform finest known for explicit content material, has boomed during the pandemic. But from receiving terrorism movies to racial abuse and rape threats, a BBC investigation primarily based on the experiences of dozens of ladies reveals issues about how the British-run site is structured, managed and moderated.

Warning: Story accommodates grownup themes and language

Tina Bean had been residing in her automobile for 2 months when she began selling nude photographs of herself on OnlyFans.

The 22-12 months-previous had been kicked out of home after a "large combat" and spent most of last summer time sleeping in automobile parks within the heat of Phoenix, Arizona.

Everybody else she knew was making "a hell of some huge cash" on the site. "So, I used to be like, I'd as properly just soar on it."

She is likely one of the million content creators on OnlyFans who share photographs and videos with subscribers for a month-to-month payment. In return, the site takes 20% of their earnings.

Creators can put up a range of content from beauty to health movies, however it's widely recognized for pornography.

Soon Tina was making $2,000 (£1,450) a month and able to rent her personal flat.

But in January, a hacker seized management of her account, blackmailed her for $a hundred and fifty and uploaded streams of IS terror videos.

The footage, seen and verified by BBC News, depicts individuals being held hostage in warehouses, or running in worry, before being shot in the head.

"They appeared terrifying," she says. "I kept deleting them and changing my password but saved getting locked out of my account."

The perpetrator then spammed greater than 40 of her fans, calling them the N-phrase, earlier than stealing all of her images and posting them on a porn site.

Tina says after a tortuous cycle of repeatedly being hacked over a month, she reported this to OnlyFans and temporarily disabled her account. She has now misplaced almost all of her subscribers and earns simply $a hundred every week - if she's lucky.

In an announcement, OnlyFans said the account didn't have two-factor authentication, which made it vulnerable. The corporate stated Tina didn't report the racial slur and it was not detected by the location's moderation system as a result of it was pluralised.

It added that this system has now been upgraded and "in gentle of this particular incident", protocols have been updated to ensure that any hacked account's content material is fully reviewed earlier than access is restored.

OnlyFans turned a cultural phenomenon during the pandemic, as lockdowns pushed folks on-line to make and spend cash.

Founded by Essex businessman Tim Stokely in 2016, it has change into one of the UK's quickest-growing tech platforms, with greater than one hundred twenty million users worldwide.

Celebrity endorsements and articles about odd ladies making life-changing quantities of money from selling nudes has boosted its profile, and last 12 months the site dealt with funds value £1.7bn.

The social media platform allows creators to put content behind a paywall and charge a monthly subscription charge - which ranges from $4.Ninety nine to $49.Ninety nine - for access. Creators can high up their earnings by sharing unique pay-per-view posts and receiving suggestions.

OnlyFans thrives on high engagement, and one in every of its large appeals is that creators and followers can construct relationships by way of livestreams, personalised messages, and direct requests for custom-made pictures and movies.

Much of the content material is express - earning it a reputation because the "paywall of porn" - and users should be 18 or over to sign up.

But behind the glamour of how it is introduced, the fact for some has been very different. Tina's expertise highlights what creators and digital specialists describe as systemic issues with how OnlyFans is structured, managed, and moderated.

The BBC has interviewed dozens of creators within the UK and US, seen copies of complaints and correspondence with OnlyFans, and located:

- Terror videos, rape threats and racial abuse have been posted on the site in the past 12 months in violation of its phrases of service, as well as explicit photographs of a scholar uploaded without her consent
- Data safety experts have raised considerations about the safety of the web site's server after creators have been hacked, or affected by glitches leading to nude images of others showing on their accounts
- OnlyFans' policy of granting automated refunds to fans who are blocked can perpetuate and incentivise abuse, in response to creators
- The location has now adjusted its processes around closing creators' accounts after the BBC questioned why one had her web page shut down without rationalization, which resulted in it being restored
OnlyFans explicitly states on its webpage that it is "not accountable" for moderating content material, or detecting breaches of the law or its insurance policies, which includes bans on harassment and sharing unlawful or non-consensual images.

However it informed the BBC that, whereas it was not legally obliged to proactively review content on the platform, freefans.tv it goes "above and beyond" what present regulations require through the use of group reporting and artificial intelligence software to assist keep users safe.

The corporate says it evaluates over 300,000 media recordsdata a day, and has greater than 500 agents involved in compliance and moderation. It said that every one flagged content material is reviewed on a case-by-case foundation.

Digital experts have instructed the BBC that artificial intelligence might be unreliable for porn, and OnlyFans wants extra human moderators as express content is more susceptible to issues of abuse or copyright.

"The difference with OnlyFans is the best way it's arrange," says Matt Navarra, a social media marketing consultant. "Because of the type of content material, and the chance it doubtlessly presents to more vulnerable users, the stakes are increased, and subsequently the extent of accountability is greater as effectively."

'I'll hunt you down'

OnlyFans creators sell a fantasy - simply like the millions of movies freely accessible on porn websites. Yet in the media, it has developed a popularity as being dwelling to the naughty lady next door, who's extra accessible than skilled adult entertainers.

Tips for customised content material can be profitable, and one 20-year-old scholar, Charlie, mentioned she has acquired requests starting from $50 for a video of her eating a pizza, to $200 for one in every of her masturbating with intercourse toys.

"It isn't about someone that's simply searching for a quick video, like on Pornhub," says Victoria-May, a mother-of-two from Northampton. "It's about relationship building."

Two years in the past, the 31-year-old quit her job as a trainee accountant to sell homemade pornography on the site. She says she has now made more than £1m.

But this hasn't come with out difficulties, and she says setting boundaries with a few of her "fans", who pay $30 a month to view her triple-X-rated pictures and movies, has led to a deluge of abuse, rape and demise threats.

She says that last summer, a male subscriber threatened violence after she declined to have intercourse with him - and sent messages to her OnlyFans account, together with:

"I know where you live.

"I'll hunt you down.

"I will kill your children.

"I'm going to rape you.

"I'll make your husband watch me as I damage you, then I'm going to kill you.

"I hope all of your loved ones get Covid and die."

When Victoria-May reported these threats, OnlyFans stated "rude messages" did not violate its tips and the subscribers' account wouldn't be eliminated. But as the company takes 20% of earnings, she feels it has a obligation to take action.

The site then took six months to answer greater than 20 successive complaints - which have been seen by the BBC - including studies of racial abuse directed at contributors in her videos.

OnlyFans said it dealt with Victoria-May's complaints "in a timely method" and that any fan reported and located to have been abusive is immediately faraway from the platform. It added that it only began to evaluation and investigate suspicious keywords in direct messages from April this yr.

'Obsessive behaviour'

Stalking, bullying and harassment is against OnlyFans' tips and the site says breaches of this coverage might lead to accounts being suspended or terminated.

For creators who do obtain abuse, the site allows them to mute or block that fan. However, the platform robotically provides anybody who has been blocked - no matter the rationale - a refund of their lively subscription.

Many creators who spoke to the BBC felt this coverage was misused by fans and a few mentioned it will probably incentivise them to be rude or provocative, as their month-to-month subscriptions come to a close. Others added this made them really feel penalised for being mistreated.

"The refunds issued to abusive shoppers should be re-evaluated," says SkylaRayne, 26, a creator from New York. "We're the ones putting the meals on their tables. So, when I'm being harassed and insulted, I'd count on [OnlyFans] to allow me to block someone without them getting a refund. That's just bare minimal."

But creators say that blocked fans are in a position to create new accounts and sign-up to their pages again.

This was the expertise of Bell, a 23-yr-outdated model from Manchester, who says she was harassed by a fan final year who was requesting excessive content material in return for ideas.

"It obtained very intense, so I determined to cut it off after six months," she recalls. "They usually reacted fairly badly to that - it was obsessive, obsessive behaviour.

"They were stalking me over multiple accounts, watching me by way of my pals' tales on Instagram, that they had numerous me, so I was nervous that they could use this against me."

Bell reported the fan to OnlyFans three times and she says the location later advised blocking him. But he continued to sign-up to her web page utilizing multiple new accounts.

She informed the BBC her experience may have been higher if OnlyFans had a reside chat operate, which might have enabled her issues to be responded to immediately.

The company says Bell was not prepared to supply proof of any particular abuse. It said that on all of the events the positioning was contacted by her, it replied promptly with advice and later blocked the IP address of the alleged abusive fan.

OnlyFans added that, as a subscription-primarily based platform the place fans pay for access and content, it was "uniquely geared to dissuade and deter abusive behaviour from customers" because, unlike anonymous social media, it might swiftly determine and take away them.

Find out more

OnlyFans is failing to forestall underage users from promoting and showing in specific movies, based on a BBC investigation. Under-18s have used pretend identification to arrange accounts, and police say a 14-12 months-previous used her grandmother's passport.

The kids selling specific videos on OnlyFans

Leaks, hackings and glitches

For most creators, the appeal of the location is that photos and videos are locked behind a paywall.

Pirating content material is against the law, and in opposition to OnlyFans' terms of service. But almost all the creators spoken to mentioned their photos had been leaked and traded by males in different social media and messaging boards.

Some instructed the BBC their photographs had been maliciously despatched to relations, or that they had been blackmailed into sharing nudes for free or instructed they can be made public.

"Individuals are naively lulled into a false sense of security from the paywall, that what's behind it stays behind it," says Honza Cervenka, a lawyer within the UK specialising in picture-based mostly sexual abuse at McAllister Olivarius.

"Legally, content creators give OnlyFans a licence for his or her content material however they keep the copyright," he says. "That leaves the first responsibility to remedy a leak on content material creators, which might be a hard, lengthy and costly legal course of."

Risks of being on OnlyFans also can include data safety breaches and hackings, based on creators who shared screenshots about the safety of the positioning.

BBC News discovered that at completely different occasions some creators have faced "glitches" that have resulted in different peoples' pictures appearing on their accounts.

Kandii Kitten, 26, was a kind of affected, and mentioned an image of a man holding his penis had been posted on her page when she had attempted to upload a nude photograph.

Another creator, Katja Miyatovich, was hacked whereas utilizing the platform in May, regardless of having two-issue authentication security enabled to forestall this.

As she was logged-in when it was taking place, the 27-12 months-previous from Canada was in a position to quickly regain entry. She shared the email alerting her to the unidentified access to her account with BBC News.

"That is extraordinarily disturbing and definitely a private data breach," says Rowenna Fielding, a knowledge safety advisor. "Indisputably that [hacking] ought to have been investigated and reported to the information Commissioner's Office."

Tim Turner, who additionally specialises in data safety, agrees and mentioned that as a result of Katja was hacked despite having two-factor authentication, and these glitches weren't a one-off fault, it raises questions on the security of OnlyFans' server.

He added that OnlyFans should consider making two-issue authentication necessary for creators on the platform given the intimate nature of the content.

In response, OnlyFans says Katja's account may have been accessed by someone with access to her linked Twitter account and phone quantity, and says it advised her to utilise the authenticator app as an alternative of SMS verification.

It also said it runs a big takedown group to assist creators remove leaked content material, with a 75% success charge, and now works with third-occasion suppliers to proactively find, identify and remove stolen content material.

The positioning added it was "very aware of its obligations underneath data safety legal guidelines" and as with all on-line platforms, there are sometimes system points and incidents, which can or will not be knowledge breaches. It said it investigates and experiences them as appropriate.

'My photos were bought without consent'

Madison, a 22-12 months-outdated pupil from Texas, discovered that her former roommate had been promoting topless photographs of her on OnlyFans for nearly 4 months final yr without her information.

As images on the site are hidden behind a paywall, she had only came upon after her pictures had been cross-promoted on Twitter to drive site visitors to the account.

What had began as a night time of enjoying around and taking what she describes as "sexy footage" along with her pals in their dorm, ended with her being exploited and the Polaroids falsely marketed as lesbian content.

Her "intestine sank" on the realisation as she scanned by way of the pictures on OnlyFans, which have been seen by the BBC. "I like ladies who like women," one submit read, while one other inspired $5 suggestions.

"When I feel about what she did, it stays with you, that you got used, that she violated me," she mentioned.

OnlyFans' guidelines ban creators from sharing intimate images with out permission and requires any customers making content material that includes different individuals to have written proof of their consent, or says they must also be registered creators.

However the BBC understands proof of consent is simply requested if an account is flagged or reported, which depends on folks being conscious that their images are on the site.

"OnlyFans overnight turned one among the most important cowboys within the wild wild West of the [unregulated] porn trade," says Kate Isaacs, who campaigns against picture-based sexual abuse, known as revenge porn.

"But unfortunately the lack of moderation on the site and guaranteeing its technology is sturdy sufficient to protect individuals who select to place their content material on there is just seriously lagging behind."

Digital consultants say OnlyFans could deploy extra refined, automated technology whereby creators are required to submit recorded proof of consent at the purpose of upload to proactively stop this due to the added difficulties the paywall presents for community moderation.

Madison's pictures were deleted by her ex-roommate after she reported the incident, last May, to state police, who confirmed an investigation is below way. She is now considering taking authorized action against the creator.

Despite having breached the company's insurance policies, BBC News discovered the alleged perpetrator continues to be using OnlyFans beneath a distinct pseudonym.

OnlyFans said it makes use of proprietary software program as well as guide critiques inside its content material moderation system to watch and handle compliance with its terms and circumstances.

OnlyFans' position within the porn world turned extra prominent after payment providers Mastercard and Visa ended their relationship with PornHub following allegations of unlawful content material last year. Many of its performers relocated to OnlyFans.

Brian Honigman, a advertising consultant and adjunct professor at New York University, said OnlyFans ought to over-commit to moderation to safeguard its consumer base.

"And at the tip of the day, this does protect your lengthy-term capacity to generate income and be a worthwhile business," he says.

"The subscription model is nice, and the paywall is great when used accurately, but it is essential that platforms like OnlyFans make certain they're being utilized in a means that results in positive impacts."

Lots of the creators who spoke to BBC News still use OnlyFans and say, financially not less than, it has transformed their lives. But they have spoken out within the hope it would lead to them receiving better help.