Facebook Accused of Conspiring With OnlyFans To Blacklist Rivals
Meta says the claims are “without merit.”
Earlier this week, a lawsuit was filed against OnlyFans due to claims of it blacklisting the social media accounts of adult performers from its rival websites. Now, Facebook has been accused of conspiring with the platform.
The class-action filing from FanCentro has stated that “social media content of adult performers promoting rival websites to OnlyFans was placed on a database of extremist material shared between tech companies that is run by the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT),” as per BBC. GIFCT is utilized by companies such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter to flag terror content for other tech companies. The filing was made on behalf of three adult entertainers, who claim that the wrongful categorization of non-terrorist content has resulted in a decline in visibility and traffic. Although their posts do not violate community guidelines, the uploaded content was forcefully removed in an act known as a “shadowban.”
According to the news outlet, an adult website owner and a performer have shared that their incomes fell significantly following the takedown of their Instagram posts in late 2018. “These allegations are without merit and we will address them in the context of the litigation as needed,” Meta commented on the situation. “We are not aware of any evidence to support the theories presented in this lawsuit between two parties with no connection to GIFCT,” a GIFCT spokesperson added.
Stay tuned as we learn more about the case.