The names of several senior Meta executives have been revealed in a lawsuit accusing the platform OnlyFans of corruption.
These revelations, made in error, according to the lawyer for OnlyFans, notably involve Nick Clegg, the group’s vice-president of global policy, and Nicola Mendelsohn, world vice-president of the business team. They are accused of accepting bribes from the adult content platform in exchange for highlighting their posts and shadowbanning their competitors.
OnlyFans accused of corruption and unfair competition
Last March, two platforms competing with OnlyFans, FanCentro and JustForFans, as well as a performer responsible for a TDS union filed a complaint against the company which largely dominates the industry. They then accused him of conspiring to eliminate all competition from social networks. The company, with the help of an organization still unknown, would have undertaken to systematically report all the publications of its competitors as dangerous or of a terrorist nature to the moderation services of the various social networks.
The three plaintiffs are unanimous: since the acquisition of OnlyFans in 2018, the traffic of all its competitors has experienced a considerable drop. In particular, they are made invisible on social networks. A FanCentro spokesperson then states that “ there is no statistical or otherwise benign explanation (such as better marketing) to justify these differences in treatment “. For him, it is therefore the manipulation of databases and sometimes arbitrary moderation mechanisms that are at issue. But the latest revelations that came out during the trial could show that the explanations are to be sought far beyond the moderators.
Meta does not seem destabilized for all that
The lawsuit had long since established that several people had been corrupted by OnlyFans, but the revelation of their identities shows the seriousness of this. From the start of the trial, the plaintiffs had accused Facebook of participating in their boycott, but the exploitation of its moderation policy could have been a credible explanation. This information, which was obtained by a defense lawyer via an anonymous whistleblower, proves, if true, that Meta’s platforms were not only exploited, but indeed participated.
Very telling, this information, which indicates in particular transfers to accounts opened in the Philippines in the names of the executives mentioned, does not disturb the defense of Meta nor that of OnlyFans for the moment. Facebook’s parent company denied the charges to the press, but didn’t really bother to do so in court. She contented herself with pointing out that, even if they turn out to be true, these accusations could not be attributed to Meta.
Sources: Gizmodo, The voice of the North
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