OnlyFans announces ban on explicit content

It's Friday, August 20, 2021.

In a surprising twist, OnlyFans, a video site best known for its adult videos and images from independent creators, is banning, well, explicit videos and images. The site has exploded in popularity over the last few years, with more than two million creators offering content to their paid subscribers. Many of the top creators on the platform share adult content.

In a statement, OnlyFans said the move was “to ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform.” The company said it was due to pressure from banking and payment partners, but a damning BBC investigation revealed that OnlyFans had let a lot of illegal content from creators make it on to the site.

The BBC tested whether OF would allow users to promote themselves as young teenage creators with photos. It apparently did, until the BBC asked the video-sharing site about these accounts. The report makes this sudden direction shift seem less, well, sudden.

OF will ban users from uploading photos and videos of "sexually explicit conduct" as of October 1st. Nudity will apparently still be allowed, as long as creators stick by OnlyFans' Acceptable Use Policy.

Could the site suffer a similar fate to Tumblr? When that social network instituted a ban on adult content, it saw popularity plummet. OnlyFans is a little different in a few ways. The major difference is how it offers a way for creators to directly make money from its audience.

After the company’s 20 percent cut, that is.

— Mat Smith

Tesla is working on a humanoid robot

Of course it is!

Tesla

While Tesla’s AI Day was a relatively dry tour through the company’s AI tools and ambitions, there had to be One More Thing. That thing was the Tesla Bot.

Tesla boss Elon Musk said it would be a “friendly” humanoid robot, slow and weak enough for you to outrun and overpower it — just in case the robot uprising.

Musk said the company plans to have a prototype of the Tesla Bot ready by next year. I’m taking bets on which year we’ll actually see it.

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Galaxy Z Flip 3 review

The best foldable yet is still a tough sell.

David Imel for Engadget

Ready for a foldable? The Z Flip 3 is a satisfying upgrade from the original, thanks to water resistance and a larger, more useful Cover Display. According to Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low, its $1,000 starting price puts it in the same class as flagships from Apple, Google and Samsung itself, too. However, the Flip 3 is held back by battery life and potential durability issues.

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Watch Apple's latest 'Foundation' trailer, with a giant space elevator

The blockbuster sci-fi series premieres on September 24th.

Apple has offered another look at its latest sci-fi saga, Foundation. The latest trailer doesn't reveal too much about the story — based on a series of Isaac Asimov novels — but it has some impressive visuals, including an elevator that, according to showrunner David S. Goyer, stretches around 26 miles into space.

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'Quake' 4K remaster is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC

Only ten bucks.

QuakeCon may not have happened last year due to the pandemic, but id Software is hoping a Quake remaster might help distract its fans. Out now for $10 on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, the game now has support for widescreen resolutions up to 4K, dynamic lighting and anti-aliasing. Regardless, it still looks like Quake to me.

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'Call of Duty: Vanguard' first look

Taking the series back to WWII

Sledgehammer Games / Activision

Call of Duty: Vanguard, the next entry in Activision's long-running first-person shooter series, arrives November 5th. Like 2017's Call of Duty: WWII, the studio's previous project as lead developer on the franchise, Vanguard takes the series back to where it all started: the Second World War. According to the game’s creators, the game is pitched as a “filmic blockbuster,” with characters, set pieces and everything you might expect from a war movie. 

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