Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has officially updated its guidelines to allow users to share or promote adult or sexually explicit content. This is with the exception that this content does not reflect on your display photo or your X banner.
In a recent update to its official usage policies, X says, “You may share consensually produced and distributed adult nudity or sexual behaviour, provided it’s properly labelled and not prominently displayed.”
The move to allow porn could be a strategic attempt by X to expand its user base and engagement, capitalizing on the popularity of adult content. An estimated 4% of the web consists of porn, with roughly 28,258 people actively viewing it every second. Globally, the porn industry is worth about $97 billion with $10 to $12 billion of the whole industry’s revenue coming from the US. For comparison, Twitter’s annual revenue in 2023 was $3.4 billion, a significant decrease of 23% from the previous year.
Interestingly, Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, already allowed some pornographic content before his acquisition. In October 2022, the company estimated that 13% of all posts contained adult material, even before the official deal closed. Back then, users with Twitter Blue (now X Premium) could share adult content freely. However, this official policy change under Musk signifies a more permissive approach to adult content on a platform already battling issues with bots and offensive content.
X defines Adult Content as any consensually produced and distributed material depicting adult nudity or sexual behaviour that is pornographic or intended to cause sexual arousal. AI-generated, photographic, or animated content such as cartoons, hentai, or anime are covered by this definition according to the social media platform.
This new policy raises concerns about the exposure of pornographic content to children considering that the age limit to create an account is 13 years old. Other social platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok (US only), have had to create kids-friendly versions.
While it’s not yet known if X will offer a special version for kids. However, the platform is making sure grown-up content is marked. The platform has asked users who choose to post adult content to adjust their media settings to include a content warning that needs to be acknowledged before the media can be viewed. Where a user fails to indicate this in their posts, X will do so for them. Users under 18 or viewers who do not include a birth date on their profile cannot click to view marked content.
Despite these guidelines, adults are questioning this, asking for a version of the app that doesn’t expose them to adult content on the app, or leave open access to adult content for minors. Individuals have begun to express their distaste for the new updates as American YouTuber Pealr Davis recently Tweeted, “Hey @elonmusk if you’re going to allow porn, would it be possible to have a function that allows us to use X without being exposed to it?”
In January, trolls reportedly flooded X with graphic AI fakes of Taylor Swift which gained more than 45 million views before it was eventually taken down. Events like this could still occur, and people are asking how X plans to check them especially because these new rules make it hard to.
X has also struggled to keep advertisers, who have left the platform since Elon Musk’s takeover following his gutting of the safety team and a report that ads were being displayed next to pro-Nazi posts. The matter was worsened by Musk doubling down on comments criticised as being antisemitic.
Under Musk’s tenure, X has dramatically scaled back moderation on the platform He has argued that he is upholding freedom of speech, “We believe in the autonomy of adults to engage with and create content that reflects their own beliefs, desires, and experiences, including those related to sexuality,” X’s Adult Content Policy reads.
Between February 2023 and January 2024, ad revenue for the platform decreased by 64%. With the recent update, we might yet see another decline in the ad traffic on X, considering that many advertisers are not comfortable with the possibility of their products showing besides adult content.
