(LifeSiteNews) — Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback has pitched a unique proposal to curb the influence of the pornography industry: a 50 percent “sin tax” on income earned by OnlyFans creators. OnlyFans is a creator-run porn site that connects porn performers directly to fans, who pay a monthly subscription fee for content. “Creators” keep about 80 percent of earnings, while the platform, which launched in London in 2016, takes 20 percent.
OnlyFans has exploded in popularity over the past decade. As of 2025, the platform has over 4 million “creator accounts” (not all of them feature pornography), and over 305 million “fan accounts,” with an estimated annual revenue of over $6.6 billion. Industry watchers and journalists frequently refer to OnlyFans as “the future of porn.”
“My message to the owners of OnlyFans is get the hell out of our state,” Fishback explained. “I hope you get bankrupt. Don’t you dare come to my state and try to exploit and abuse young women. My message to the men buying this content: stop! My message to the women who are being exploited — stop.”
Fishback suggested that the revenue from such a tax—which he put at around $200 million—could be used for teacher’s pay, school lunches, or a mental health czar.
When Fishback was asked what he would say to creators who want to use OnlyFans, he was dismissive. “Psychology 101. The Stockholm syndrome makes it very clear that if a victim believes it is their choice, it is not,” he said. “I do not believe the young women being exploited and used by OnlyFans right now have a choice. They’re living in a society that venerates that kind of cultural degradation.”
A prominent OnlyFans “star,” Sophie Rain, a Floridian mentioned by Fishback, condemned the proposal. Fishback had noted that Rain “would end up paying Florida 42 million dollars” in taxes. Rain claimed that creators often “do this job because they’re struggling.” Approximately 70 percent of OnlyFans creators are women.
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“Never in my whole life did I think that I would wake up and see a Florida politician trying to start beef with me for clout,” she said. “We would have to pay 50% to the state on top of the 37 I already pay to the government, and I would be more than happy to pay that if multi‑billion-dollar corporations were also being properly taxed. But surprise, they’re not.”
Fishback is perhaps not the best advocate for this policy, as he faces allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a minor student several years ago. He denies the allegations, but one of Florida’s largest school districts cut ties with him in 2022 over the alleged relationship, and he does not dispute many of the details. But the proposal—a “sin tax” on OnlyFans that resembles similar taxes on cigarettes and alcohol—is a good one. Similar “sin taxes” have reduced socially problematic behaviors, and pornography certainly qualifies.
As I have noted in this space for over a decade, politicians should be treating pornography as a genuine crisis. I interviewed JD Vance twice during his Ohio senatorial campaign in 2021, and he agreed that the state has a role in combating the corrosive spread of pornography.
“In the scope of American history, the internet is very new and the idea that a 9-year-old can watch a gangbang on the internet is very, very new,” he told me. “We have to make the argument that it is objectively bad for kids, bad for parents, and bad for society to have an entire population that grows up being exposed to something no generation in American history has been exposed to.” In the second interview, he reiterated that position.
“There have been a lot of examples throughout history where we’ve recognized that a given product or service is harmful and made a decision to protect those kids through legislation or regulation,” Vance said. “You could do a straightforward ban on pornography for kids under the age of 18; you could give parents more control over the devices in their kids’ hands … it requires the political willpower for us to say enough is enough. The idea that you can’t regulate the internet in a way that protects children is just absurd.”
Vance is precisely right. Republicans should start openly discussing ways of protecting not only children, but society at large, and any effective measure should be considered. Sin taxes, regulations, restrictions—or, in my view, a straight-up ban on pornography.
