Congratulations are in order to Bella Thorne, an already wealthy celebrity who is now $1 million wealthier thanks to just one day on OnlyFans.
Thorne is the latest in a growing number of celebrities to join the paid subscription platform, fueling fear that the sex workers who have largely dominated the site since its 2016 launch will soon be overshadowed or even forced off the platform.
In addition to driving traffic and earnings away from smaller adult performers on the site, celebrity presence on OnlyFans also threatens to attract increased attention from big, mainstream advertisers who have a tendency to crack down on X-rated content once a platform reaches a certain level of mass appeal.
“Too often we have seen platforms like Twitch and YouTube allow risqué behavior to grow their channels, only to kick [sex workers] off when major advertisers come down,” adult business and marketing consultant Amberly Rothfield told InsideHook, adding that she remains “concerned and skeptical of what may transpire” if celebrity presence continues to grow on the site.
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Thorne’s massive OnlyFans payday arrives as pretty clear evidence that the celebrity takeover isn’t slowing down. While Cardi B is perhaps the biggest name to join the platform to date, Thorne is the first OnlyFans creator to rake in $1 million in one day, according to Paper, and the star’s staggering payout has prompted some to ask Thorne how she plans to redistribute her earnings to the sex workers she’s likely displacing.
“@bellathorne Again, i call you in asking how you are going to redistribute your 2 million dollar wealth from OF [OnlyFans] to SWs [sex workers]?” wrote artist and sex educator Haley Hasen in a recent Instagram post. “How will you acknowledge your privilege as a white, wealthy, virtual SW? When will you acknowledge the effects of having OF shut down for plenty of creators on OF, unable to produce and send out content?”
Others have taken to Twitter with similar questions and concerns.
“I wonder if Bella Thorne – who is already worth millions – will be redistributing the money to the sw’ers who worked hard to build OnlyFans?” asked one Twitter user, who went on to question if the star plans on “using her platform to discuss the unfair differential treatment between celebs and sw’ers doing the exact same things? I wonder…”
How this will all shake out for sex workers on the platform remains to be seen, but Thorne’s instantly lucrative success suggests the celebrity invasion of OnlyFans that sex workers have feared for months now is about to swing into full gear.
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