OnlyFans: Inside the Review Machine – Bad and Uninteresting TV | Television

Mein the grounds of a mansion in Manchester, a lot of sad-looking young men and women – scantily clad – are wheeling around supercars they don’t own. Nearby, a young girl looking into the distance touches her lips in a gesture of sexual presence. Inside, a Twister board hides next to a pile of discarded clothes.

All this preparation is a disappointment, a kind of dream requirement for today’s founders, but it turned out that everything was designed as a day with samples of OnlyFans – a way for them to move around clothes and places and quickly put what they can afford to subscribers in the coming months. If they do well, they will be rich.

But not as rich as their manager, who stands in the back with a rocket lolly in his hand. All of them are his clients, and he will take 30% of the income from each of them. No wonder he seems to be enjoying himself. And yet as disturbing as this image is – like a cartoon designed to be as unpleasant as possible – the BBC documentary OnlyFans: Inside the Machine wants to let you know that this is still its official machine.

OnlyFans is, of course, an online registration site that often presents itself as a solution to sexual activity. The site makes billions of pounds a year, paying millions to creators who upload their photos and videos in return. Seen through the lens of the platform itself, OnlyFans is a vehicle for empowering a generation of limitless wealth. But where there is money, exploitation follows. And if rubbing ice cream on your cleavage represents the end of the politeness of OnlyFans management, the script does a pretty good job of showing how bad it can get.

Basically, a group of young men (mostly boys) have entered the OnlyFans management game, often attracted by videos showing the huge wealth that such schemes can generate. It’s all obviously a get-rich-quick scheme, and as we learn, these managers are everywhere. Amber Haque, the actress of the film, is dating Gia Clarke. Although Clarke is one of the most successful OnlyFans in the UK, she is so busy with applications from potential managers that she sifts through them for messages from subscribers. He calls someone on camera. He promises to triple his income. He thinks he will have to pay her 50%, and in return he will run his site down.

How he will increase his income is not stated, but the implication is that it will not be as traditional as OnlyFans likes to make it out to be. One woman said that her bosses forced her to be more candid on camera than she normally was. Another is said to have been strangled by masked assailants after refusing to be escorted by his employer. The video also reveals the Telegraph’s entire team of OnlyFans managers teaching each other how to get their models to do what they want. The group’s managers sell samples to each other without their knowledge. Many change their bank details on accounts so that brands don’t know how much they earn and can’t be suspicious if they don’t pay back. The whole thing is very dark.

What this film does amazingly is put all of this into the social sphere of the masses. Guys selling women against their will is a common practice, but there’s also a huge technical misunderstanding to contend with. OnlyFans, the film says, consciously ignores this abuse to protect the point. When producers write to them to complain about their treatment by unscrupulous managers, they often receive a standard letter from OnlyFans washing their hands of the whole muddy business. (The company says the following in response to the film: “OnlyFans takes the safety of users very seriously and invests a lot in order to protect our community. In addition to our security measures, if someone says that they are concerned about the creator’s account, we will immediately block the account, investigate and take measures to ensure that the creator supervises their work organizations and organizations close to the research organizations. Professional groups to improve our security.”)

With things like this, you should try to keep your expectations very low. And this film shows us a very small glimpse. A lawyer suggests it’s only a matter of time before the platform starts being sued for negligence for the amount of human trafficking it seems to be helping. If this happens, then change can happen. Until then, Inside the Machine leaves you with the impression of a system where everyone cuts, but pregnant women are left to pay the price.