OnlyFans stops working for Russian users for a short time, company blames ‘technical error’

Online service OnlyFans, popular among erotic content creators, stopped working for users with Russian IP-addresses for a short time earlier in the day, Russian media report.

OnlyFans says that the crash had to do with a technical error.

“This story [of blocking Russian users] is incorrect. A technical problem occurred, which affected several regions and is now fixed”, the OnlyFans press service tells Poligon Media.

Earlier in the day, the website did not load without using a VPN-service in Russia. Upon trying to enter the website, a message with an error 403 was displayed. However, the service still loaded when entering from other countries.

In February 2022, after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, OnlyFans limited the access to account of Russian and Belarusian models which led to difficulties with the withdrawal of money from the platform. An option to prolong paid subscriptions to accounts of users from Russia and Belarus was no longer available.

In April, the service suspended Russian accounts. “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 website’s statement read at the time.