X formerly known as Twitter, has changed its policies to officially permit adult content on its platform, including porn and some other graphic material.
Before this update, the Elon Musk-owned platform existed in a grey area regarding adult content. Uploads weren’t explicitly banned, but no official guidelines permitted them as well.
Now the new terms of service allow X users to post consensually-made Not Safe for Work (NSFW) content freely.
“We believe that users should be able to create, distribute, and consume material related to sexual themes as long as it is consensually produced and distributed,” reads the company’s support page on adult content policies.
The page goes on to say that pornography will not be visible to children or adults who don’t want to see it. The company already has a policy that prevents users under 18 and those who haven’t entered their birth date from seeing such content.
The policy isn’t absolute. X still forbids sexual violence as well as anything that’s “excessively gory.” Posts that incite or threaten violence are also forbidden.
X says users who often post NSFW content will have to label it as “sensitive content”. The support page for posting adult content prohibits users on the platform from sharing “excessively gory or depicting sexual violence,” and “promoting exploitation, nonconsent, objectification, sexualization or harm to minors, and obscene behaviors.”
“We also prohibit content promoting exploitation, nonconsent, objectification, sexualization or harm to minors, and obscene behaviors,” X said. It added that it does not allow sharing adult content in “highly visible” places such as users’ profile photos or banners.
The new content guidelines encompass AI-generated nudity as well.
In the rule update, the social media company believed that sexuality could be a “legitimate form of artistic expression,” and that adults had the power to make and interact with content that reflects their beliefs about sex.
X never formally permitted adult content, but its presence rose following the launch of the Twitter Blue subscription program. X’s new premium tier, mirroring the subscription model of OnlyFans, allowed adult content creators like sex workers and porn actors to monetise their work through subscriber-only content.
X’s policy stands in contrast to other social media platforms, such as Meta’s properties – Instagram and Facebook – as well as TikTok and Google’s YouTube. “The platform’s move to allow ‘adult content’ dovetails well with the company’s post-Musk marketing strategy,” said Brooke Erin Duffy, associate professor of communication at Cornell University. “X is unapologetically provocative and has sought to distinguish itself from ‘brand safe’ competitors.”
The strategy could help X monetize porn by fostering communities based around it, particularly with paid subscriptions. However, it also risks drawing scrutiny from governments worried that it might let non-consensual material slip through.
By Ezinne Okorie.
