LONDON — OnlyFans CEO Amrapali “Ami” Gan has rebutted allegations of child exploitation in a sensationalist advocacy piece by an anti-porn BBC reporter, defending the site as “truly the safest and most inclusive social-media platform.”
Noel Titheradge, the BBC senior investigative journalist who penned the attack piece, has a history of targeting adult platforms to stoke moral panic. Last year, Titheradge claimed credit for policy changes within OnlyFans, only for the BBC to quietly edit his headline away from his claims when challenged via Twitter.
Last week, Titheradge unveiled another damning “report” about OnlyFans, this one purportedly based on information attributed to an anonymous “U.S. agent.”
An OnlyFans rep told Business Insider, “When the BBC raised this anonymous claim, we asked them for evidence to enable us to investigate, determine if it was true, and to take appropriate action to protect people online. The BBC refused to provide any details or evidence preventing OnlyFans from investigating this claim.”
The BBC did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Gan told the BBC that OnlyFans “actively” works with law enforcement.
“If anyone makes the mistake thinking they can upload illegal content, we will report them,” Gan told the U.K.’s public news outfit. “We're truly the safest and most inclusive social-media platform.”
A BBC Reporter With Questionable Methods and Claims
Last year, on the day OnlyFans announced its short-lived porn ban, the BBC published a piece by Titheradge, which claimed without offering clear evidence that OnlyFans was seeing a “proliferation” of illegal content.
Titheradge tweeted his story out, boasting that it was he and his investigation that had resulted in the ban. BBC News editors later quietly changed the headline of the piece from “OnlyFans: Platform to ban sex videos after BBC investigation” to “OnlyFans: How it handles illegal videos — BBC investigation.”
Neither Titheradge nor the BBC ran a correction statement at the time.