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For those of you unaware, OnlyFans is an online platform that allows creators to share photos and videos (mostly pornographic) to their following for a monthly subscription fee. BBC Scotland journalist, Vonny LeClerc, was one of the first to raise awareness about the possible hacking, claiming that there is a link available where 1.5TBs worth of data was available for anyone to view. Alternate reports stated that 1.6TB to 4TB of content with users' stage names attached were floating around the internet without any encryption.
LeClerc spoke with Buzzfeed News about the potential hack voicing her concern about the privacy of the site's creator's, stating:
"Creators are understandably concerned. I have been DM'd by a number of sex workers so they can see if they are on the list. Unfortunately, it seems to have attracted the trolls who are now victim-blaming and calling women 'degenerates.'"
She continued:
"Lots of people who use [OnlyFans] rely on this as a revenue stream. Younger people, trans and nonbinary people, disabled people, people who may not have the easiest access to traditional employment. If gives anyone a means of making paywall-protected adult content. But clearly, it offers zero protection for creators, whose content can be bought and then freely distributed onwards."
After the website's creators angrily addressed the London-based platform, OnlyFans' marketing chief Steve Pym released a statement claiming that the company found no evidence that they were hacked, saying:
"We have investigated claims of a site-wide hack and found no evidence of any breach of our systems. The content contained in the supposed leak seems to be curated from multiple sources, including other social media applications."
According to Vice Motherboard, the data dump also included private Patreon content, which implies the stolen data was collected by numerous subscribers who then reshared the content online for free. With creators in an uproar, they have called on OnlyFans to implement more dependable security measures.
With hackers' ability to disrupt the livelihoods of people minding their business in their own homes, tamper with cryptocurrency, and more it was only a matter of time before OnlyFans curators would feel that same pain as well.