X has updated its content policies to permit adult content, including nudity and pornography, officially, provided it is “consensually produced and distributed” and adequately labelled.
Unlike its peers, the platform has never had a formal policy permitting or banning adult content. Without a ban, adult content has thrived across X, formerly Twitter, for many years. Reuters reported in 2022 that adult content comprised about 13% of posts at the time.
Under Elon Musk, X has experimented with formalising its approach to adult content, including enabling communities to mark if they intend to spread adult content to avoid “not safe for work” posts being auto-filtered.
Now it has introduced a formal adult content policy which gives a green light to posts containing adult nudity and porn—including AI-generated, photographic or animated sexual content—provided they abide by certain rules. First reported by TechCrunch, the policy states that content must be “consensually produced and distributed.” However, it doesn’t provide details on how X would check the integrity of this or give support to victims.
It states users can report “unmarked content or other violations” in its app.
The policy also prohibits content “promoting exploitation, nonconsent, objectification, sexualisation or harm to minors, and obscene behaviours.”
To restrict who is exposed to adult content on the platform, users who “regularly post” such content are required to adjust their media settings. Hence, all of their images and videos automatically appear behind content warnings. They can also manually label individual posts. Users are also banned from sharing adult content in obvious places, such as profile photos or banners.
The policy justifies allowing adult content on X: “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.”
The chief executive of creative social agency Movers + Shakers, Evan Horowitz, said he sees the new policy as “a benefit to advertisers, as standardisation allows for more predictability and consistency.”
“Predictability helps advertisers make smart brand safety decisions,” he said.
X’s policy clashes with the positions of the largest social media platforms, which either heavily restrict or entirely ban adult content.
Meta has strict nudity and sexual activity policies across its platforms, including prohibiting images containing female nipples, while TikTok has an outright ban on nudity, sexually suggestive content and pornography. YouTube prohibits “explicit content meant to be sexually gratifying” and pornography.
Reddit permits users to share sexually explicit material that is consensual, provided it does not involve minors.
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