On April 28, just before noon, Win White published a series of unusual messages on X. He addresses his 65,000 subscribers, many of whom know nothing about his past, and asks them one simple thing: to no longer share his old videos from OnlyFans. “I think I have the right to a life after this”he writes.
A few hours earlier, Win White, 29, had received several private messages warning him that an old clip was circulating online again. However, he thought he had managed to turn the page. In 2024, he deleted his OnlyFans account as well as the X profile associated with him, but as is often the case on the internet, the past refuses to disappear completely.
His activity on the platform had been brief, explains a Wired article. A former soldier, he registered there in 2022 to gain financial independence and free himself from a toxic relationship. In total, he produces around forty videos, mainly solo. Nothing which, according to him, justifies the scale of the reactions today.
Win White expected little empathy and he was right: in his publications, the responses oscillate between mockery and reproaches. Some remind him that “the internet never forgets”. Others believe that it is inconsistent to want to delete content for which subscribers have paid. Very quickly, his case goes beyond his own history and relaunches a broader debate, that of the right to be forgotten: what happens to consent once content is published? Can we really regain control over our image after the fact?
The law on their side
These questions are emerging as many creators leave OnlyFans. In recent years, several well-known figures have attempted to reinvent themselves, sometimes by radically changing their lives. But leaving the erotic or pornographic industry does not mean disappearing from the internet.
For researchers, the problem is far from simple. Consent is supposed to be reversible, including in sexual interactions. But what is this principle worth in the face of digital content, copied, archived and re-shared at will? The answer is unclear.
From a legal point of view, however, creators retain rights. They can request the removal of content or take legal action in the event of unauthorized distribution. You still need to be able to track files scattered across dozens of platforms and that can be reuploaded anywhere, anytime.
Behind the controversy purely linked to the right to be forgotten also lies that of the persistent stigma linked to the porn industry and its workers. For some Internet users, having made adult content is enough to disqualify any attempt at retraining, as if this past decision forever tarnished the credibility of content creators.
Now based in Washington, where he is training to become a paramedic, Win White is mainly looking to put some distance with his previous life. He knows that his request is, in part, impossible, but he sees it above all as a question of principle: that of knowing whether a body, once exposed online, still belongs to the person who inhabits it.
