Woman says video of her being raped appeared on OnlyFans, over 128 police reports filed over sexually explicit videos without consent

The complaints were made from both men and women between January 2019 and November 2023. The videos in which they did not give consent were often sold for profit, the report shows.

These complainants include woman who alleges that a video of her being raped had been sold for money on OnlyFans, which is a subscription-based adult entertainment site.

The majority of the 128 police reports were filed by women against former male sex partners. Some of those allegations included claims that the videos were made consensually but were later published on the site without their consent or knowledge.

Women who were unwillingly featured on the site said that their lives had been ruined by it.

Sammy, 21, who claimed that she had been raped on video which later appeared on OnlyFans, told the outlet: "A whole company has made money off of my biggest trauma."

A woman in Texas recounted being hounded by stalkers who watched a viral OnlyFans video of her. The incident forced her to install a home security system, according to the report.

A woman from Nebraska claimed that she found it difficult to go out in public because she was afraid that someone might recognize her from a $15 sex film that her ex-boyfriend had sold on OnlyFans. An Illinois mother alleged that her daughter saw naked pictures of her circulating online she did not know were even out there, per the report.

Reuters filed public records requests at more than 250 US law enforcement agencies to request documents pertaining to OnlyFans. The outlet received 56 records that showed people complaining about explicit and nonconsensual posts on the website. Reuters also said they had interviewed police officers, legal experts, prosecutors, and nine individuals who said they appeared on OnlyFans without their permission.

About 40 percent of the complaints stated that the videos had previously been posted on other well-known social media platforms, typically as teasers for longer, more explicit content that OnlyFans was selling.

In response to the report, an OnlyFans spokesperson told the publication that they have banned users and supported police investigations when reports had been made.

"In the few examples where bad actors have misused our platform," OnlyFans had "removed the content swiftly, banned the user and actively supported investigations and prosecutions."

According to the spokesperson, OnlyFans looked into the circumstances of Sammy and other people detailed in the report and discovered that the creators or administrators of OnlyFans had removed the accounts and content in question. Deletions sometimes happened a year or more after women complained to police, according to a Reuters analysis of police reports and OnlyFans account data.

The representative stated that OnlyFans strengthened its consent verification processes in late 2022 but did not go into detail about the specific situations. According to her, the business requires "proof of identification and consent from all individuals featured in any explicit content uploaded to our platform, and we moderate all uploaded content."