“OnlyFans” User Videos Leaked but the Platform Says There is no Breach

• OnlyFans adult content creators in trouble as their performances have leaked online for free.
• The platform says this is the result of social media applications, while others point to the subscribers themselves.
• Unfortunately for the people involved, there’s no definitive way to lock these video feeds.

In the past couple of days, users of the “OnlyFans” social media service have been fueling rumors about a data leak that affects the platform. Sure enough, new forums and websites popped up like mushrooms after the rain, claiming to have content from OnlyFans. In total, it is estimated that more than 1.6 TB of data (some claim up to 4 TB) in the form of videos and images have leaked online, mostly belonging to female users who shared adult content on the platform. However, OnlyFans says they see no evidence of any breach in their systems, and they point to data aggregation instead.

https://twitter.com/TheRealStevePym/status/1233135498639675392

As Steve Pym, the head of marketing at OnlyFans tweeted, they believe that the data has curated through social media applications and that this was the users’ wrongdoing. Technically, this is not a leak, but an illegitimate sharing of data belonging to the platform and its users. OnlyFans is a social media platform that permits users to share images and videos without any restrictions with their followership. Users who want access to this content pay a subscription fee, with the creator taking 80% of that and OnlyFans receiving a cut of 20%.

With over 20 million registered users already, the platform is highly successful, partially thanks to the granular limitation settings that it offers to adult performers. More specifically, one can set up geographic restrictions, ensuring that users from their part of the world won’t be able to access their content for example. Thus, the latest event puts creators in the risk of extortion and harassment, while both them and the platform will see their profits dive due to millions of people sharing otherwise paid content for free.

https://twitter.com/vonny_bravo/status/1233078447553024000

However, there’s another dimension in this story, and it’s one that OnlyFans hasn’t commented on. Subscribers of models can very easily take screenshots or record video feeds, store them locally, create databases of content they legitimately accessed, and then share it online for free. There’s literally nothing stopping them from doing that, and it is very possible that the content contributions from these users played a key role in the recent events.

As there’s no way to stop this, what most platforms do is to add “invisible watermarks” on the video feeds which are unique to each registered user. When someone shares content for free, they are suspended from using the service. Even this isn’t enough to stop the most determined users, as they simply set up a new account, or they leak the collected data in bulk. The platforms don't sue them for this malpractice, and it's highly unlikely that OnlyFans will take the legal road this time either.