OnlyFans Piracy Crackdown Is Accidentally Deleting the Internet

Piracy has always been part of the internet, but the explosion of OnlyFans creators has turned it into a billion-dollar problem, and the fallout is now hitting everyone.

Adult performers and independent creators, whose livelihoods depend on subscription revenue, have been fighting to keep their content off so-called “leak sites” that repost paywalled photos and videos for free. Many now rely on takedown companies to file Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices on their behalf.

But in the arms race between pirates and automated copyright enforcers, the web itself is becoming collateral damage.

Recently, a search for articles on Google yielded no results. The reason? A DMCA request, filed by an anti-piracy service on behalf of an OnlyFans model, had flagged dozens of unrelated websites, including a tech news site, a horror movie blog, and even a University of Missouri page about honey bees.

Those sites disappeared from Google’s search index, even though they contained no infringing material. According to records in the Lumen Database, these mistakes stemmed from automated scans and bulk removals.

Kunal Anand, CEO of Takedowns AI, admitted that sometimes clients supply long lists of links they want removed without proper vetting. “We don’t really review it because we are an agent for them,” Anand told reporters.

And they aren't the only ones. There are a ton of DMCA companies that submit massive amounts of fake claims. Bruqi OÜ, BranditScan, and DMCA Force are just a few of the many DMCA companies that creators use to submit a massive amount of false DMCA claims to legit content owners.

Around November of 2024, Google received its 10 billionth takedown request.  A few months later (April of 2025), this number had increased by another 2.3 billion, or roughly 100 million takedowns per week. After that, Google’s transparency reporting updates froze.

For performers, stolen content is a constant drain on income. “OnlyFans leak sites are a living nightmare for us,” one creator said. But misuse of takedown tools carries risks of its own.

But the problem is, it takes time to research if the website in question is stealing your content (something you actually own) or a scene you were in, but you don't own the rights to.

These automated DMCA companies don't bother to take the time. They scan for the creator's name and submit the request. And that, in essence, is the problem.

A large site can get hundreds of these requests per day, requiring them to take the time to file a counter-notice, and that can get costly, especially if you have to hire a person to spend hours a day filing these counter-notices against the abusive DMCA companies.

You can only legally file a DMCA takedown request if you own the content. If a performer shoots a scene for a studio like Brazzers or Naughty America, they typically sign away their rights in exchange for payment. Trying to remove that studio’s video can be illegal.

Submitting bogus takedowns known as copyfraud can trigger bans from Google, lawsuits, or even federal perjury charges. Civil penalties can reach millions of dollars, while criminal penalties may include imprisonment.

Industry insiders say dozens of performers have already been blacklisted by major studios because third-party DMCA services filed improper takedowns in their names.

Experts warn that this isn’t just an OnlyFans problem. It’s part of a wider breakdown in how copyright is enforced online:

• Automation without oversight leads to errors that suppress legitimate speech.
• Google’s dominance means a single takedown request can erase critical information from public view.
• AI-driven enforcement risks amplifying mistakes at scale.

Meredith Rose, a senior policy counsel with Public Knowledge, put it bluntly:

“At the end of the day, the DMCA is a way to get speech off the internet. Even if you’re not malicious, abuse happens sometimes through incompetence, sometimes through buggy automation. With AI, we’re going to see a lot more of this.”

As a creator, you should take the advice from veterans: take piracy seriously, but don’t outsource recklessly. Nobody will deny that something has to be done about sites stealing a creator's content. But it has to be done right.

Hiring a cheap DMCA service that floods Google with false claims could result in a performer losing future work and facing legal trouble. A safer option may be to work with trusted services that verify each claim or even hire a virtual assistant to send manual takedowns for a fraction of the price.

Ultimately, protecting your content means striking a balance: fighting piracy without compromising the integrity of the internet in the process.