The subscription-based creator platform OnlyFans has reversed its recent decision to ban sexually explicit conduct after widespread backlash.
"Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard," it said in a statement Wednesday. "We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change."
"OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators," it added. The company had planned to ban the content starting October 1.
An OnlyFans representative said the change was planned "to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers."
Read more: OnlyFans pauses fundraising round, sources close to the company tell Insider.
Sex workers had told Insider that they were "angry and confused" by the change. Other tech platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr, have a history of censoring sex workers who rely on social followings for revenue.
"They're giving us less than two months' notice to now find a new platform to move all of our fans to in an attempt to just survive and keep paying rent," a sex worker named Nat Cole told Insider.
CEO Tim Stokely had told the Financial Times that the banks BNY Mellon, JPMorgan Chase, and Metro Bank created "unfair" obstacles to pay creators because of OnlyFans' association with sex work.
Stokely said in an interview Tuesday that JPMorgan Chase was "particularly aggressive" in closing accounts of sex workers or "any business that supports sex workers."
OnlyFans, which was said to have had trouble wooing investors because of the platform's association with sex work, stopped fundraising after it announced plans to ban porn, sources close to the company told Insider.
Stokely, however, denied the company's decision to ban porn stemmed from trouble finding investors. He told the Financial Times that sexually explicit conduct would be allowed on OnlyFans if banks changed their practices.
"This decision was made to safeguard their funds and subscriptions from increasingly unfair actions by banks and media companies," Stokely said. "We obviously do not want to lose our most loyal creators."
