OnlyFans’ first generation creators are retiring, and some are begging you to forget they existed

On April 28, Just before noon, Win White logged into X and to publish A series to Messages To his 65,000 followers, who, until that moment, were unaware of his past as a person OnlyFans creator.

“I humbly request that we all refrain from sharing the content before. If you see it, save it… Great.” books. “I know where I was and I believe I have the right to at least live a life after this.”

That morning, White, 29, received several direct messages about an old clip of him making the rounds. Although he does his best to separate his old life from his new one — last year he deleted his OnlyFans account and the separate X account where he posted content — he often has a habit of catching up. “All this work I did for OnlyFans, I did it in California. I don’t really talk about it on this page. So I panicked,” White tells WIRED.

However, he had a hunch about how his request would be received, and how bad the responses could be. “From the moment I sent the tweet, I knew this wasn’t something everyone was going to abide by. I don’t expect any kind of respect.”

The reactions, which ranged from sympathy to mostly sarcasm, denigrated White for his past choices. “You’re desperate, so deal with it now,” one X user said Comment. As more people piled up, this was a misfortune lit Intense discussion On the limits of consent and the ethics of consumption.

OnlyFans saw tremendous growth between 2020 and 2023. White, an openly gay Navy veteran, signed up for the platform in September 2022 because he wanted to achieve independence from a toxic relationship he was trying to get out of. By August 2023, the year he resigned, OnlyFans had more than 3 million creators. White says he’s filmed about 40 videos in total, most of which were filmed solo, except for a few scenes he did with an ex-partner.

The experience is starting to seem unreal to his character, and the reputational consequences aren’t worth the small payment. “I only did it when I needed money to do something extracurricular. It wasn’t my day job at all. I didn’t get rich from it.” Another thing, White says, “He’s really bad at it,” which is why he’s been surprised by the responses to his posts asking people to stop sharing his content.

Many people argued that White’s plea was unreasonable. This is the Internet, well, the Internet will be forever. “You can’t ask millions of strangers to collectively agree to a ‘hush’ policy on content you personally post and keep live. That’s not how it works.” One X userwith another pile on: “The digital footprint lives here and does not leave here.” Others described the request as hypocritical given that they paid for the work. Added @stuntqween: “I’m all for respect – but it’s so funny when retired gays finally make the money they’ve dreamed of (from making porn) and then suddenly it’s ‘Take this down!’ Honey, we paid for this content, we shared your content to support you and we funded your lifestyle. Supporters emphasized to White that it comes down to one issue – consent – saying that not being able to start over constitutes an unfair social punishment. Request @MrFlyyyGuyyy“Why do you feel comfortable ignoring a person’s consent?”

Over the past several years, there has been a notable exodus of notable creators from OnlyFans, including influencers Blac Chyna and Great British bread winner John WhiteSome have to pass difficult questions when leaving work.