Meta Cracks Down on OnlyFans Creators

Apparently censorship is alive and well in the “Land of the Free”, as Instagram continues its crusade against OnlyFans creators. Why? For the egregious crime of linking, or even talking about their main money maker, OnlyFans.

An anonymous OnlyFans creator with over 25,000 Instagram followers lamented on Reddit recently that Instagram had shadowbanned their account due to their linking of their OnlyFans page in their Instagram bio. 

Instagram and its parent company, Meta, have been turning up the heat on OnlyFans creators in recent months, banning (and then un-banning) numerous high-profile creators. Even if creators aren’t posting anything deemed too risque by Instagram, they can still be shadowbanned just for sharing a link to their OnlyFans.

UK creator Lily Phillips (who has received attention for sleeping with 583 men in six hours) had her Instagram account banned with no explanation. “All my content is always in the guidelines,” Phillips said, adding, “I really don’t even show my ass cheeks or anything like that. I’m pretty strict.” She’s careful not to mention the word OnlyFans at all on Instagram, as that usually tips off Meta’s bots. “We’re really being discriminated against,” Phillips said.

Shadowbanning is almost worse than an outright ban. It directly limits an account’s ability to do exactly what social media was designed to do: reach other accounts. If an account has violated Instagram’s Terms (which can be achieved through directly linking an OnlyFans account), Instagram will stop showing that account to other users. This aforementioned Reddit user noticed they were getting far less views and engagement on Reels (videos) that they posted to Instagram, making it impossible for them to grow their account and direct more people to their main source of income, OnlyFans. Because of this, it’s common for adult content creators to have backup Instagram accounts, only in rare cases of egregious Terms of Service violations are those backups ever deactivated. 

OnlyFans creators have been using platforms like Linktree or link.me or beacons.ai for awhile now. These platforms are essentially “link-in-bio” tools that can be used to skirt Instagram’s restrictive OnlyFans policies. It allows users to post a link to a “landing page” or “directory” style page, which then can be used to direct followers to a page Instagram wouldn’t normally allow direct links to. However, alarmingly, some accounts are being shadowbanned for even having a landing page, if Instagram’s regulating “bots” are even suspicious that someone may be an OnlyFans creator.

One Reddit user said, when they removed the directory style link (that also contained a link to their OnlyFans), their shadowban was instantaneously removed. Another Reddit user recommends creators worried about being banned remove any mention of the word “OnlyFans” anywhere on their Instagram account, as Instagram’s “bots” are more likely to pay attention to accounts that use this word anywhere. Landing page services like “getallmylinks” also don’t allow bots to view landing pages, which could be advantageous for those looking to keep Meta’s prying bot eyes out of their stuff.

The original Reddit user was finally able to get around the shadowban by deleting the words “Exclusive Content”, then purchasing and using a custom website domain and linking that instead. 

Apparently, in this day and age, it takes a lot more elbow grease than it used to to outsmart Meta’s OnlyFans “police”. It seems almost daily the social media giant finds new ways to make it more difficult for people who are just trying to make a living. 

The good news is, OnlyFans creators have always been prepared to fight back against unjust bans, and in most cases, an appeal resolves whatever issue Meta had with creators’ accounts. In May, fundraising website Kickstarter announced a ban on adult content, but after just a week of that policy being in effect, the company reversed the ban after an insane amount of backlash. Adult creators are a vocal bunch, and if you cross them, you will hear about it.