Elon Musk’s X announced an update to its content policy last week, formally allowing “consensually produced and distributed” adult content on the platform. The new guidelines, which codify an unofficial policy that has existed since before Musk took over the social media platform in 2022, permit users to upload adult nudity, pornographic content, and even AI-generated material with only a few restrictions—despite longstanding user requests to eliminate this kind of content entirely.
According to the latest update to the X Adult Content policy, users “may share consensually produced and distributed adult nudity or sexual behavior, provided it’s properly labeled and not prominently displayed.” As the company writes:
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. Sexual expression, whether visual or written, can be a legitimate form of artistic expression. 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.
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This open-handed approach to pornographic content on the platform is balanced by hiding such content from children and adult users who choose not to see it. X will also prohibit content “promoting exploitation, nonconsent, objectification, sexualization or harm to minors, and obscene behaviors,” and pornographic content will not be allowed in profile pictures or banner images.
X defines “adult content” as “consensually produced and distributed material depicting adult nudity or sexual behavior that is pornographic or intended to cause sexual arousal,” which includes “AI-generated, photographic or animated content such as cartoons, hentai, or anime.”
We have launched Adult Content and Violent Content policies to bring more clarity of our Rules and transparency into enforcement of these areas. These policies replace our former Sensitive Media and Violent Speech policies – but what we enforce against hasn’t changed.
Adult…
— Safety (@Safety) June 3, 2024
Even before Musk’s highly publicized takeover of the company formerly known as Twitter, pornographic content was permitted on the app, in stark contrast to social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, where explicit content is heavily censored.
Related: OpenAI Explores Ways to “Responsibly” Generate AI Porn
Since the buyout of the platform, Musk’s “free speech absolutist” stance has made X a haven for various kinds of content marginalized on other sites, with some experts suggesting that this latest step “dovetails well” with the app’s “unapologetically provocative” strategy.
Loosened content moderation under Musk’s leadership has allowed once-banned figures to return to X, but it has also opened the door for automated porn bots to run rampant, spamming millions of comments sections with the ubiquitous “░N░U░D░E░S░I░N░B░I░O░.”
In the past, X Premium (previously Twitter Blue) has served as a home for a number of adult content creators, making the social media site a possible rival to OnlyFans—which, given the drop-off in ad revenue after Musk’s takeover, might be a welcomed revenue stream for the company.
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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