Dataharvest 2026 - the European Investigative Journalism Conference

What really happens behind the glossy surface of OnlyFans — and how do you investigate an industry built on secrecy, money, and blurred consent? After more than a year of reporting on the hidden economy around OnlyFans across five countries, I will take participants inside a world of agencies, chatters, fake identities, reseller servers, and leaked-content markets that platforms never talk about.

This session reveals how intimacy becomes a trap: how creators are manipulated by intermediaries, how their content is redistributed through underground Discord and Telegram networks, and how money flows through a web of crypto, burner accounts, and anonymous middlemen. Using findings from the cross-border investigation, From OnlyFans to OnlyScams, we will show how to uncover what the platform hides.

What attendees will take away:
- Investigating online sex-work ecosystems ethically and safely
- Techniques for undercover reporting, digital tracing, scraping, and mapping hidden networks
- Following payment trails and linking them to real actors
- Interviewing victims and insiders without causing additional harm
- Turning a sensitive, high-risk digital investigation into a powerful cross-border story

This is a practical session for journalists who want to explore one of the fastest-growing — and least understood — shadow economies on the internet.