SAN FRANCISCO — Adult Performance Artists Guild board officers Alana Evans, Kelly Pierce and Ruby have informed a California court that, although they want to drop their lawsuit claiming that Meta conspired with OnlyFans to blacklist rival premium fan platforms’ talent, they may still pursue antitrust claims in the future.
As XBIZ reported, earlier this month the performers told the court that Meta’s counsel had informed their lawyers that the company lacked records to back their allegations that their posts had been shadow-banned or placed on a database used to flag and remove content on Instagram and Facebook allegedly produced by “dangerous individuals and organizations.”
Evans, Pierce and Ruby originally filed the civil lawsuit in February 2022 against OnlyFans and its owner, as well as Instagram and Facebook’s parent company, Meta. The suit replicated claims from an earlier lawsuit filed on behalf of FanCentro in November 2021, alleging a conspiracy to engage in “tortious interference with contract and intentional interference with prospective business.”
The proposed class action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, “accused Meta of blocking social media posts from adult entertainers who compete with artists who perform exclusively on OnlyFans’ subscription platform,” Law 360 reported.
The plaintiffs say Meta informed them that the company “found no evidence that any competitor platform was currently on the list, or had been nominated for inclusion.”
According to their motion, “based on the information Meta defendants provided, the information essential to plaintiffs’ class allegations is not available,” making further discovery efforts “futile.”
Now the plaintiffs are “fighting to drop their California federal court allegations in a way that they could still be refiled,” Law 360 reported.
Meta, however, wants the case “tossed on the merits, potentially blocking any new lawsuit,” the report added.
The performers’ filing states, “Contrary to Meta’s other arguments, the evidence obtained during discovery creates a reasonable inference of preferential treatment of OnlyFans and performers who exclusively promoted OnlyFans,” though by means other than they originally alleged. “That Meta has been deleting (or not retaining) data that might support plaintiffs’ claims as to the terrorist list does not eliminate other evidence of anticompetitive conduct.”
The performers’ attorney, David E. Azar of Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC, told Law360 that their claims about being put on a watchlist could potentially still be backed by whistleblowers who may come forward in the future.
