According to a bombshell set of new lawsuits, OnlyFans and Facebook have worked together to blacklist rival adult websites.
As per the BBC, OnlyFans bribed Meta employees to put thousands of porn stars onto a terrorist watchlist in an effort to hamper competitors in the online porn industry.
The lawsuits allege that adult performers who were found to be selling photos and videos on rival sites had their Instagram accounts falsely flagged as containing terrorist content. As a result, the adult performers had their incomes affected. The sellers of X-rated pictures were then “shadowbanned” across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and more.
The adult performers were allegedly put on a database of terror-linked accounts run by the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), a nonprofit group intended to stop the spread of mass shooting videos and other terrorist content across social media sites.
The outcome, the lawsuits claim, was that OnlyFans’ traffic and profits massively increased while competitors saw their traffic drastically decreasing.
Law firm Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman is responsible for the lawsuits, which have been filed against both Meta and OnlyFans. According to the law firm, they have a list of over 21,000 Instagram accounts they claim were unfairly tagged as potential terrorist.
Alana Evans, one of the adult performers part of the suit, discussed her ordeal with the New York Post. “When I heard that my content may be listed on the terror watch list, I was outraged,” she said. “I was angry because it affected my income when my social media traffic dropped significantly, and I was angry because I am the daughter of a veteran who fought for this country.”
In a statement to the BBC, however, Meta insists that an internal investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing. “These allegations are without merit and we will address them in the context of the litigation as needed,” Meta said.
