Saying sorry. Bella Thorne apologized for “hurting” OnlyFans sex workers. The former Disney Channel star took to her Twitter on Saturday, August 29, to apologize to OnlyFans content creators, who accused her of scamming so many customers that the site had to withhold and reduce payments for other creators.
Thorne launched her OnlyFans on August 19, and within 24 hours, the Shake It Up alum had already made $1 million, which was a record for the subscription-based site that charges customers $20 a month to access Thorne’s content. Since then, she’s made more than $2 million in total. However, many users have criticized Thorne’s OnlyFans. The critics claim that Thorne sent a message to her subscribers, selling a $200 nude photo. However, when her subscribers purchased the photo, they saw that it wasn’t a nude photo but a picture of Thorne in underwear. Per OnlyFans’ policy, if a customer is scammed, they can receive a refund. However, critics claim that so many customers asked for refunds from Thorne that the site couldn’t pay back the refunds in time, so OnlyFans reduced maximum price for messages for other creators to $50 and tips to $100. Critics also claim that OnlyFans told creators they will be paid in the next 30 days, instead of the usual week.
“People have bills to pay. Kids to feed. Many people, including content creators and sex workers, live paycheck to paycheck. How are they going to pay their bills this month? How are they going to feed themselves and their families? This is REAL HARM,” wrote Twitter user @erikaheidewald in a thread explaining how Thorne’s OnlyFans profits hurt other creators.
In response to her critics, Thorne released a statement on her Twitter, explaining that she created an OnlyFans to remove the stigma around sex and sex work, not to make it worse. “PT1 Remove the stigma behind sex, sex work, and the negativity that surrounds the word SEX itself by bringing a mainstream face to it that’s what I was trying to do, to help bring more faces to the site to create more revenue for content creators on the site,” she wrote.
She continued, “I wanted to bring attention to the site, the more people on the site the more likely of a chance to normalize the stigmas, And in trying to do this I hurt you. I have risked my career a few times to remove the stigma behind sex work, porn, and the natural hatred people spew…behind anything sex related. I wrote and directed a porn against the high brows of my peers and managers because I WANTED to help with the stigma behind sex. …I am a mainstream face and when you have a voice, a platform, you try to use you in helping others and advocate for something bigger than yourself. Again in this process I hurt you and for that I’m truly sorry.”
Thorne ended her tweets by telling her followers that she’s working with OnlyFans to remove the restrictions and make the site better for other content creators. “Ps. I’m meeting with only fans about the new restrictions to find out why!!! This is fucked up and I’m sorry comment any ideas or concerns you want brought up to OF!! and send me your links and a pic so I can promote you guys,” she wrote.