Elon Musk has reportedly made another huge change to X, allowing uncensored sexually explicit content to appear on the platform – with a few restrictions.
A recent and relatively hushed update to X’s official usage policies has reportedly changed the kinds of content that can be shared on the platform. Under the new rules, users can share consensually produced and distributed adult nudity or sexual behaviour, provided it’s “properly labelled” and not “prominently displayed”.
“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,” X said in the policy update. “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”.
X’s Adult Content Policy claims that: “We balance this freedom by restricting exposure to Adult Content for children or adult users who choose not to see it. We also prohibit content promoting exploitation, nonconsent, objectification, sexualization or harm to minors, and obscene behaviours. We also do not allow sharing Adult Content in highly visible places such as profile photos or banners”.
Adult content according to X is defined as any “consensually produced and distributed material depicting adult nudity or sexual behavior that is pornographic or intended to cause sexual arousal.” The definition also applies to AI-generated, photographic or animated content such as cartoons, hentai or anime. Examples include depictions of “full or partial nudity, including close-ups of genitals, buttocks or breasts” and “explicit or implied sexual behaviour or simulated acts such as sexual intercourse and other sexual acts”.
The platform is urging users who regularly post content of this nature to adjust their media settings that will place all “images and videos behind a content warning that needs to be acknowledged before your media can be viewed.” Users can also add a one-time content warning on individual posts.
Users under 18 or those who do not include a birth date on their profiles cannot click to view posts marked for adult content.
B&T contacted X for comment on the reports and received a one-line automatic response: “Busy now, please check back later”.
