OnlyFans has been accused of conspiring to blacklist the social media accounts of adult performers working for rival websites, BBC News has learned.

Legal documents, previously unreported, claim OnlyFans directed an unidentified social media company to disable accounts of performers by placing their content on a terrorism database.

It is alleged that OnlyFans representatives paid bribes to the firm’s employees to facilitate the practice. OnlyFans says it is aware of the legal claim and it has “no merit”.

UK website OnlyFans – best known for hosting pornography – has grown hugely in recent years. It lets users share video clips and photos with subscribers in return for tips or a monthly fee.

Performers often use social media accounts – including Twitter and Instagram – to promote and link to adult websites showing their explicit content.

BBC News has learned that rival adult website FanCentro has begun legal action in the US against OnlyFans’ owner Leonid Radvinsky and the company which receives OnlyFans’ payments, Fenix Internet LLC.

The claim was submitted to a US court in Florida last November, but has been unreported until now.

It alleges OnlyFans directed an unidentified social media company to blacklist many competitor adult websites in 2018.

FanCentro claims the social media content of adult performers promoting rival websites to OnlyFans were placed on an international database – the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). The database uses advanced technology to stop the spread of terrorist images by recording a unique digital signature for them, known as “hashes”.