- X allows users to create adult communities by adding an “Adult Content” tag.
- This does not change the general purpose of the platform and is intended to make communities safer by automatically filtering content.
- X had previously conducted research for adult content, but suspended this plan due to the content not being adequately monitored.
Bloomberg, reported that While this may seem like a controversial shift towards adult content in X, it turns out the story is different than it first appears.
Users who create a community within the app can indicate in the settings that their group “contains mature content,” according to Bloomberg. X groups will then contain an “adult content” tag. Users who do not tag their communities according to the rules may see some content filtered or removed. This has led to speculation that
X explained that the update is not a new change in this direction. One X engineer, “To be clear, this setting is about making communities safer for everyone by automatically filtering out explicit content. Only users who indicate their age will be able to search communities containing sexually explicit content.” said. So this is a protective measure, not a way to open the doors to make adult content more visible and acceptable on the app. This could be a side effect either way, but X doesn’t seem to be making any bigger moves to appeal to adult content creators just yet.
However, in 2022, Twitter explored the possibility of allowing adult content creators to sell subscriptions on the app in a bid to tap into OnlyFans’ $2.5 billion independent content market. Since adult content was already present and easily accessible on X, there was a possibility of making more money for the platform rather than ignoring this element. However, Twitter management decided that it could not do this. In the past years The Vergesaid that the reason for this was that harmful sexual content on the platform was not effectively controlled.
In January, X announced plans to establish a new “Trust and Protection Center” in Texas to increase awareness of this particular issue. With this hub, X may be in a better position to implement a plan around adult content, but no progress has been made on this hub yet. With X’s advertising revenues down 50%, adult content may soon be needed to make money.
Compiled by: Esin Özcan