The internet thought Wattpad was coming for its Harry Styles smut. Here’s what actually happened

Viral claims of an explicit-content ban sparked fears that years of fan fiction could disappear, but Wattpad says its policies haven’t changed.

For some, One Direction is merely a British boy band that sang “What Makes You Beautiful” and introduced the world to Harry Styles. But for fanfic lovers in the mid-2010s, the band and its members were also their lovers, adoptive parents, and sometimes even their kidnappers.