Russian porn performers temporarily blocked from OnlyFans accounts amid economic sanctions

  • 01/03/2022

Porn performers in Russia were temporarily blocked from accessing their OnlyFans accounts over the weekend amid economic sanctions imposed on the country due to the Ukraine invasion. 

Several content creators hit out at the platform on Sunday saying they were unable to create new content or access their money. 

OnlyFans is a subscription platform that allows content creators to be paid directly by their audience.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Russian based adult performer Bunnie Mommy claimed she lost thousands of dollars from having her account blocked. 

"In short term, I don't have money to live … Many models [are] faced with this, nobody thought it could happen." 

Another entertainer known as Kitty told the Daily Beast they support Ukraine and can't understand why their account was frozen. 

"Right now I don't have any funds to buy food or pay my rent. I have taken part in several protests since I moved to Moscow when I was 18. We are not Putin! All my prayers for peace and the Ukraine people," Kitty said. 

Bunnie Mommy said it's unfair to punish Russian performers for Vladimir Putin's actions. 

But OnlyFans said it wasn't punishing performers and instead was struggling to find payment methods for the performers due to economic sanctions. 

In a later statement, the platform confirmed Russia only fans users would now have access to their accounts. 

"After experiencing financial restrictions we have been able to restore account activity for creators in all countries. Their accounts will have full functionalities as long as we continue to have payment methods to support them.

"We were not terminating or suspending any creator accounts based on the creator's location, and we are doing everything we can to support our community," the company said in a statement. 

It comes as Ukrainian and Russian officials met at the Belarus border on Tuesday morning. 

The peace talks resulted in no breakthrough, but the two sides agreed to continue negotiations and are likely to meet again in the coming days.

The talks came as the city of Kharkiv was bombarded by Russian artillery, killing a dozen people. 

As a result of the war, several countries including the United States and New Zealand have placed sanctions on Russia. 

US President Joe Biden unveiled harsh sanctions last week meant to impede Russia's ability to do business in the world's major currencies along with sanctions against banks and state-owned enterprises.

It's also not the first time sex workers have clashed with OnlyFans. Content creators lashed out at the platform after it tried to ban porn. 

Last year the company said it was ditching the explicit content that made it famous in an attempt to placate banks and other payment partners. 

But after strong backlash from content creators the company backtracked on its ban.