Rep. Paul Gosar has written to the U.S. Attorney General demanding an investigation into OnlyFans, accusing the website of facilitating online prostitution.
OnlyFans is a website where supporters pay creators for private content. Much of the material on the website is based around young girls posting lewd photographs of themselves as well as porn videos.
According to Gosar, the website’s operating platform may be in violation of the Mann Act, which seeks to prevent “interstate transportation of an individual for an immoral, or an illegal purpose.”
In his letter, Gosar states that OnlyFans encourages interstate travel for such activities because it allows users to advertise on its platform for that precise purpose.
“It is worth investigating this issue further, given the volume of activity on this site and anecdotal reports about prostitution, child exploitative material, and illicit sexual coercion,” writes Gosar.
Gosar ends by calling the platform, which boasts 60 million users and 750,000 creators, a “troubling website” that incites the coercion of immoral or illegal sexual activity.
He has asked the Justice Department to respond to him on the matter before May 1st.
Numerous commentators have denounced OnlyFans for posturing as an “empowering” way for young women to be independent and earn money while actually being nothing more than a meat market for de facto prostitution.
“I have researched and campaigned against the global sex trade for decades and even written a comprehensive book exposing the horrors of commercial sexual exploitation. So I know prostitution when I see it, and no type of sanitised language changes what OF is,” writes Julie Bindel.
“The website has a function called “Strip for Tip” and, during a live video, the more money subscribers send the provider, the more clothes she must remove.”
“Pornography is just prostitution with a camera, and OF is both prostitution and pornography. It is part of the new wave of software platforms and business models which are extending the reach of the porn industry.”