Musk’s X tries to supplement his toxic hate speech with user posts containing adult pornographic content

Troubled social media platform X has announced that it will formally allow people to display adult pornographic content with mutual consent, as long as it is clearly marked as such.

The move made official a policy that was in place when the platform was still called Twitter, before billionaire Elon Musk bought it in 2022.

In a recent update to its website, the San Francisco-based company said that users “should be able to create, distribute, and consume material related to sexual themes, as long as it is produced and distributed consensually. Sexual expression, whether visual or written, can be a legitimate form of artistic expression.”

Adult material was also allowed under the pre-Musk Twitter, though there was no official policy. X said it would restrict adult pornographic content for children and for adult users who choose not to see it.

However, critics are skeptical because of the huge flow of right-wing hate speech that is spreading unchecked across the platform.

“We also prohibit content that promotes exploitation, non-consent, objectification, sexualization or harm to minors and obscene behavior,” X said, adding that sharing adult content in “highly visible” places such as user profile pictures or banners is not allowed.

X’s policy contrasts with other social media platforms, such as Meta’s properties (Instagram and Facebook), as well as Google’s TikTok and YouTube.

“The platform’s move to allow ‘adult content’ aligns well with the company’s post-Musk marketing strategy,” said Brooke Erin Duffy, an associate professor of communication at Cornell University. “X has been unashamedly provocative and has sought to differentiate itself from ‘brand safe’ competitors.”

The company has tried to appease people, including creators and artists, who have been marginalized by other social media platforms that have guidelines restricting nudity and sexual expression, she added.

The policy applies to both real and artificially 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 image they have posted before they can view it.

According to the policy, users under 18 and users who do not provide a birth date on their profile cannot view posts marked as adult content. However, the porn industry has a reputation for being unable to stop serious abuses.

Websites like Pornhub have been found to be a source of sexual exploitation, child sexual abuse, rape and non-consensual sharing of pornography.

Even before Musk, Twitter struggled to protect minors from accessing restricted content and blocking the distribution of non-consensual material. Critics of X under Musk have criticized his policies that promote hate speech and already ineffective policies that have failed to protect minors.

They argue that X will continue to evolve into a platform of choice for exploitation. In 2022, Musk significantly reduced the size of the team dedicated to combating child sexual exploitation on his social media platform. Just a year later, X came under fire again for its handling of child sexual abuse images after it reinstated the account of a right-wing influencer.