Last week, former Disney Channel star Bella Thorne broke records when she joined OnlyFans, the subscription service known as “the paywall of porn.” Within 24 hours of joining, the actress had racked up a whopping $1 million in revenue from new subscribers. She was only getting started: By the end of the week she had added another million. But there’s one group of people who weren’t pleased with Thorne’s windfall: sex workers, who claim her presence has negatively affected their own business.
So cute how Bella Thorne made her Onlyfans on a whim without doing an once of research on how it would impact the community and she immediately f*cked it up for us 🥰 LOVE that!
— Savannah Solo (@savannah_solo) August 28, 2020
According to The Wrap, some OnlyFans members voiced their frustration over social media. “So cute how Bella Thorne made her OnlyFans on a whim without doing an [ounce] of research on how it would impact the community and she immediately f–ed it up for us,” wrote OnlyFans user Savana Solo.
“LOVE that!”
What are some of the accusations laid at Thorne’s feet? For one thing, after the enormous sum she acquired, OnlyFans put a cap on how much users are allowed to charge for pay-per-view content. That reportedly came after Thorne, who had been charging $20 a month for no-nudity content, was allegedly charging a $200 for a photoset. On top of that, OnlyFans suddenly extended the waiting period for when users can cash out their earnings, from seven days to thirty.
In a statement provided to The Wrap, OnlyFans denied that any of their new changes had anything to do “any one user,” and that the transaction limits were “set to help prevent overspending.”
In an interview, Thorne stated that she sees her OnlyFans account as a way that she “can really just be more personal with my fans.” But she also said she primarily joined it as a form of research for a project she claimed she was making with filmmaker Sean Baker, of Tangerine and The Florida Project. But Baker — some of whose films are deeply compassionate looks at people who work in the sex industry — denied that that project had ever gone beyond a meeting.
https://twitter.com/Lilfilm/status/1299491042941566976
“I would like to make it clear that the news of me making a film (documentary or fiction narrative) about OnlyFans and using Bella Thorne as research is false. I’m NOT attached to this project,” Baker wrote. “Earlier this month I had a conversation with Ms. Thorne and discussed a possible collaboration in the far future that would focus on her life and the circumstances leading to her joining OnlyFans.”
Furthermore, he said he does not approve of Thorne’s action negatively impacting the sex worker industry. “On that call, I advised her team to consult with sex workers and address the way she went about this as to NOT hurt the sex worker industry. This has been the extent of my involvement,” he wrote. “I’m an ally and have literally devoted my career to tell stories that remove stigma and normalize lifestyles that are under attack. I would never do anything that could possibly hurt the community.”
Thorne isn’t the only major celebrity to recently create an OnlyFans account. Cardi B launched one in early August, promising a behind-the-scenes look at her and Megan Thee Stallion’s in-some-circles-controversial single “WAP.”
(Via The Wrap)