Elon Musk to allow consensual adult content on X/Twitter with policy change

Elon Musk is to officially allow pornography on X/Twitter after an update to its policies, though with some restrictions involved.

Since the tech billionaire took over social media platform Twitter in 2022 he has made a whole host of bizarre moves, including changing its internationally recognised name and logo to “X” and repelling a large number of advertisers due to amplifying anti-Semitic posts.

Now, he is making yet another big change to its usage policy which will now formally allow NSFW content to be distributed by users.

Its adult content policy says users may “share consensually produced and distributed adult nudity or sexual behavior, provided it's properly labeled and not prominently displayed”.

It continued: “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...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 policy defines adult content as, “consensually produced and distributed material depicting adult nudity or sexual behavior that is pornographic or intended to cause sexual arousal”.

Crucially, the policy covers AI-generated content, which is becoming an increasingly problematic area with the invention of deepfake porn.

Prior to Musk’s takeover on Twitter, pornography was regularly shared on the platform, but the new update encourages users who post it frequently to change their settings in order to hide it from under 18s and place it behind a content warning that marks it as sensitive content. There is also the option of one-time content warnings for individual posts.

The policy states: “If you continue to fail marking your posts, we will adjust your account settings for you.”

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