Meta’s recent legal victory has far-reaching implications for those of us trying to eke out a living in these virtual streets. Yesterday, Meta managed to sidestep implications that it blacklisted OnlyFans competitors, giving Meta yet another way to continue to assert dominance in the social media world.
If you— like so many of us— heard “Meta lawsuit” and thought “ok, but which one?” Fair. The tech company has been in court regarding lawsuits no fewer than 5 times thus far in 2024, and that’s just in the United States. We don’t blame you if this one managed to slip under your radar.
Basically, here’s what happened: OnlyFans allegedly bribed a few Meta execs to place adult content creators that had the potential to compete with OnlyFans onto a “terrorist blacklist” so that their content would be buried, and they’d have no choice but to seek NSFW employment elsewhere. Preferably on OnlyFans. Content creators found out and said “Um. No?” and thus a suit was filed. Then in court, the conclusion that was arrived at was that “Well, we don’t have jurisdiction over what OnlyFans does, too bad so sad,” and Meta— the company that controls the vast majority of the social media airwaves in the United States— got to walk away without negative consequences.
If you’re someone who relies on social media for income, whether it be through their paid bonus programs or simply using it to advertise your own business, you know exactly how hard it’s been to get your content seen organically by the people who actually want to see your content. When the social media giant continues to take over most mainstream social media, what options does that leave content creators?
Meta’s control over social media is… not small. Depending on which generation you belong to, one of their properties is baked into your life. Its flagship platform Facebook still serves a purpose, although we joke about it only being boomers now. Instagram has become a default search engine for most of the 30 and under crowd. Some of the worst misinformation you’re going to hear at Thanksgiving this year probably started in a family WhatsApp group. And with Threads coming after Twitter, there aren’t many options left. Unless you like mod drama on Reddit.
We don’t talk about TikTok *side-eyes impending ban*.
Because of Meta’s almost unilateral power in deciding what content gets in front of eyeballs and what content will never see the light of day, so for Meta to be accused of accepting bribes from one of the few other social media platforms that has an actual foothold in the viewership… that’s a BFD, as the kids like to say. Not only that, but because their defense under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has strengthened their ability to squash content without having to face rigamarole in court again, they’ve essentially found a way to actively block competitors from their platform which is already just about the closest thing you can get to having a monopoly without actually having a monopoly.
Basically, big yikes.
So what does this mean for content creators?
Well, they still have to depend on Meta-owned properties for promotion and engagement, even if they’re trying to get a viewership to grow on another platform. While the lawsuit alleges that OnlyFans and Meta did a sneaky little behind the scenes handshake to bury OnlyFans competitors, the implications for OnlyFans content creators who use Meta’s platforms to promote their content creation business aren’t great. Meta’s ability to bury content at will has the potential to seriously hinder content creators of all flavors, not just the NSFW variety.
Basically Meta’s a giant, independent content creators are itty bitty ants. If the giant feels like stomping, there’s not a lot the ants can do about it.
We know that Meta-owned companies are the easiest to work with and promote content on; they’ve made sure of that. But if you’re looking at turning content creation into a serious business? We’re going to ever-so-delicately suggest that you hide some eggs in some other baskets.
OnlyFans is looking pretty good now, huh?
