Bella Thorne OnlyFans Refunds

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Overview

Bella Thorne OnlyFans Refunds refers to a controversy surrounding an OnlyFans page launched by actress Bella Thorne that started after many users requested refunds claiming Thorne falsely advertised her services on the platform. The controversy was a subject of discussions online in late August 2020, with multiple sex workers accusing Thorne of hurting the sex industry.

Background

On August 19th, actress Bella Thorne launched^[1]^[2]^[3] a page on the paid subscription social media service OnlyFans, a platform popular among sex workers providing sexual content on a subscription and donation basis. The announcement post (shown below) received over 3.9 million views and 540,000 likes in two weeks.

The actress set a record on the platform, earning over one million dollars on her first day on OnlyFans^[4] after setting her subscription rate at $16.99 per month. The website reportedly crashed^[5] on that day due to an influx of visitors after Thorne joined it. Thorne did not post nude content on the platform. Within less than a week since the launch of the account, Thorne reported^[6] that she earned over two million dollars on the platform, also revealing that she was making a film about OnlyFans and her experience with it.

Developments

Starting on August 27th, 2020, a number of Twitter users reported^[7]^[8] that Bella Thorne didn't act on her promise to send out a $200 pay-per-view nude photo, sending a non-nude photo instead. On that day, OnlyFans imposed a $50 price cap for pay-per-view photographs and a $100 cap on tips, with numerous sex workers proceeding to accuse Bella Thorne of hurting their line of work (tweet screeenshots shown below).

In a statement to New York Post,^[12] OnlyFans stated that the changes were implemented "to help prevent overspending," and that they "are not based on any one user."

On August 29th, Bella Thorne posted two tweets^[9]^[10] (shown below) in which she apologized and commented on the controversy, saying that her intention was to help normalize sex work and bring attention to the site.

In the following days, the controversy remained a popular subject of discussions online, with sex workers criticizing Thorne's actions. Multiple news outlets reported on the controversy, including articles by Insider^[11] and New York Post.^[12]