What just happened? With so many Western companies pulling their services from Russia, creator platform OnlyFans had been one of the few holdouts. But now the site, which is mainly used by those producing adult content, has paused accounts in the country, though it is only doing so because of tighter payment restrictions rising from sanctions against Russia.

OnlyFans did temporarily block access for Russian creators in February, showing users a message that read, "Please be informed that your country is not supported for payouts," but the functionality was quickly restored. The UK-based company at the time confirmed that it would not be terminating or suspending creator accounts based on their location and that the accounts would continue working normally "as long as we continue to have payment methods to support them."

Now, Motherboard reports that further clampdowns on payment services for those in Russia have resulted in OnlyFans being forced to cut off Russian creators.

"OnlyFans is a creator first business. Over the past few months we have explored several options to continue providing our services to creators impacted by the Russia / Ukraine war. However, due to a further tightening of payment restrictions to and from Russia, OnlyFans can no longer properly serve our Russian creator community," the company said in a statement.

"As a result, we are taking steps to temporarily pause accounts where payments are received in Russia. We have asked impacted creators to contact support@onlyfans.com who can help address any queries regarding their accounts."

Last month saw Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal all announce that they were suspending their operations in Russia over the country's invasion of Ukraine. It followed sanctions that limited or removed Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system, cutting them off from communicating with the rest of the world via the network.

OnlyFans shocked its content creators and subscribers last year by announcing that the platform would prohibit the posting of any content containing sexually-explicit conduct starting October 1, 2021. While the site isn't entirely adult-only material, few people, if any, instantly think of fitness and cookery videos upon hearing its name. The company said that the banks behind its payment processing systems were pushing for the decision, but it took just one week before OnlyFans suspended the planned policy change amid user outrage.

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