The beleaguered social media platform X said it would formally allow people to show consensual adult pornographic content, as long as it is clearly labeled as such.
The move made official a policy already in place when the platform was known as Twitter, before billionaire Elon Musk purchased it in 2022.
In a recent update on its website, the San Francisco-based company said users “should be able to create, distribute, and consume material related to sexual themes as long as it is consensually produced and distributed. Sexual expression, whether visual or written, can be a legitimate form of artistic expression.”
Adult material was allowed under the pre-Musk Twitter as well, although there was no official policy in place. X said it would restrict adult pornographic content for children and for adult users who choose not to see it.
However, critics have been skeptical due to the skyrocketing stream of right-wing hate speech that has proliferated unchecked across the platform.
“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.
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 company has tried to court people, including creators and artists, who have been marginalized by other social media platforms that have guidelines restricting nudity or sexual expression, she added.
The policy applies to real as well as artificial-intelligence-generated material.
X has asked users who regularly post adult pornographic content to adjust their media settings to place all their images and videos behind a content warning. The distinction requires users to acknowledge that they want to see the posted image before they can view it.
According to the policy, users under 18 and those who do not provide a birth date on their profile will not be able to view posts labeled as adult content. However, the pornography industry has a track record of being unable to halt serious abuses.
Websites like Pornhub have been revealed to be infested with sex trafficking, child sexual abuse, rape, and non-consensually shared pornography.
Even pre-Musk Twitter struggled with protecting minors from access to restricted content and blocking the distribution of non-consensual material. Critics of X under Musk have blasted his policies that promote hate speech, and the already ineffective policies that have failed to protect minors.
They contend that X will further develop into a platform of choice for exploitation. In 2022, Musk significantly reduced the size of the team dedicated to fighting child sexual exploitation on his social media platform. Only a year later, X came under renewed fire over its handling of child sex abuse imagery after it reinstated the account of a right-wing influencer.
