In theory, the “community notes” feature on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter till it was inexplicably renamed by owner Elon Musk), is intended to refute or provide more context for a given tweet, which is — again, in theory — supposed to curb the spread of misinformation on the platform. In practice, however, some people have started using the Community Notes feature for another purpose entirely: getting mad at women who have OnlyFans.
Last week, the meme account @bornakang, which has about 831,000 followers on X, posted a photo of five attractive women in various states of undress (though it’s worth noting that none of the women were unclothed, and the photo was relatively SFW). “Wyd [What you doing] in this situation,” the caption read, a reference to a longstanding meme. The women weren’t tagged in the original post, but according to screengrabs, a few of them did respond in the replies, which would ostensibly draw traffic to their own social media accounts.
Nothing about the post was particularly new or unusual. On X and Instagram, large meme accounts have become somewhat notorious for cross-posting sexy content from models and influencers, particularly following the explosion of subscription-based platforms like OnlyFans in 2020. Some of the time, the content is stolen from models and repurposed for the accounts without their consent, says Ashley, a sex worker and community organizer. “They cue it up with the lowest effort, with dumb questions or dumb takes. They’re literally just farming engagement,” she says.
But it’s also not unheard of for models to pay big meme accounts a few hundred dollars for a retweet or a repost, thus driving traffic to their socials or OnlyFans. Not everyone thinks it’s effective. “In my experience it doesn’t bring paying members to OnlyFans. It brings followers on social media, maybe, but it doesn’t justify the cost,” says one popular cam model and OnlyFans creator who asked not to be named. But it’s far from uncommon, particularly on platforms like Instagram that are notoriously hostile to sex workers, to the degree that even linking to one’s OnlyFans can lead to an instant ban.
Apparently, however, something about the post made one of @bornakang’s followers very, very angry. “This is yet again another hidden paid advertisement,” the anonymous person wrote in the Community Notes feature. “The women in this picture respond and he replies to boost them so his minor followers will subscribe to their porn.” (There is no evidence that @bornakang’s account was specifically targeting minors; the person running the account did not reply to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.)
What followed was outrage directed at large meme accounts for allegedly trying to increase engagement by posting sexy content from OnlyFans models. When the meme account Women Posting Ls, for instance, tweeted a screengrab of a headline, “OnlyFans model breaks world record for longest live streamed orgasm,” accompanied by a photo of an attractive model in a thong, someone wrote a Community Note for the tweet saying the story was “made up in order to be shared by gimmick accounts to promote [pornography] outlets.” Some of the followers of Women Posting Ls, which is known for catering to misogynists, appeared to view the tweet as undercutting the account’s mission of mocking and degrading women: “There’s no greater hypocrisy than an account called Women Posting Ls selling out and promoting a woman’s OnlyFans,” one tweet read.
Another meme account, Internet Hall of Fame, was attacked for similar reasons, when it posted a photo of two shocked-looking young women with the caption, “the Uber driver just showed us a pic of my sister’s butthole.” That tweet was also hit with a Community Note, with the anonymous author writing that the post was a “poorly hidden advertisement” for the two women’s OnlyFans.
So where did all of this outrage over the perceived lack of ethics on meme pages come from? Part of it appears to stem from the fact that there is a perception shared by some that X — under the leadership of Musk, who famously fired many of the website’s content moderators when he took the reins — has been more inundated with NSFW content than usual. Although this is fairly difficult to definitively prove, there is evidence to suggest there may have been some truth to it at some point: according to internal data reported by Reuters last year, interest in porn had increased on the platform, with NSFW material representing about 13 percent of its total content among English-speaking users.
It’s understandable that some users, regardless of their own personal feelings on NSFW content, may be fatigued by “the influx of viral lewds on the site [that] has made the app extremely difficult to open up on the subway or in line for coffee,” as reported by journalist Ryan Broderick of the internet culture newsletter Garbage Day. But it’s also important to note that this complaint has been made by Twitter users since time immemorial, long before Musk took over the platform — and much of that content has historically been stolen or posted by bots and scammers without sex workers’ consent.
It’s also worth noting that that the reason why it may feel to some like there’s more adult content on the platform — even if there isn’t necessarily — is because it’s basically the only platform on the internet that creates any space whatsoever for sex workers to exist. As one of the few remaining social media networks that allows NSFW content, X has always served as something of a haven for sex workers, particularly as other previously sex worker-friendly sites, like Reddit, have gone the way of Tumblr and started implementing harsher restrictions. The perception that there is a lot of porn on X in particular may stem from the fact that it’s basically the only platform where there’s any porn at all.
Further, even though porn is allowed on X, it’s very difficult for creators to make money off it directly, as the platform’s creator monetization standards prohibit adult content. And though X has previously denied engaging in shadowbanning, or deprioritizing content from certain users, many adult creators say they have been banned from search suggestions or kicked off the platform without explanation, and some have observed their content getting less views since Musk took over.
“I get much less engagement now and I reckon others are too,” one adult creator told me of X. “I suspect many less eyeballs are on my accounts now, shadow-banned or otherwise. I think the claims [that X is full of porn spam] are just an easy way to push us underground.”
Indeed, many meme accounts that crosspost OnlyFans content appear to be weaponizing — and monetizing — a sentiment that’s older than the internet itself: slut-shaming and anti-sex worker stigma. That’s particularly true for misogynistic accounts like Women Posting Ls, which appears to be trading in on the engagement from posting photos of hot girls while simultaneously posting snarky captions about their career choices. “Being promoted on a meme page” is a double-edged sword, Cora, an OnlyFans creator, previously told Rolling Stone. “I look through the comments and a lot of people view it as very taboo and they shame the girls who do it. They’re just like, ‘Oh, she belongs to the streets’ or ‘this is why I’m never having a daughter.’”
Claims that meme accounts are violating strict FTC regulations by failing to disclose their association (if any) with OnlyFans creators may be meritless, as is the claim that they are specifically preying on minors (who, let’s be honest, have always run the risk of running into adult content pretty much anywhere on the internet). But claims that they are profiting off whorephobia and misogyny, while simultaneously reaping the benefits of female creators’ labors and bodies, seem to hold some water.