The social networking site X has announced that it would now explicitly allow anyone to display consenting pornographic content, as long as it is properly labeled as such. The action makes official a policy that was in effect when the network was known as Twitter before entrepreneur Elon Musk bought it in 2022.

Highlights:

• X (formerly Twitter) now allows consensual pornographic content with proper labeling.
• Prohibits content involving exploitation, nonconsent, and harm to minors; limits adult content in profile images.
• Aligns with X's provocative marketing post-Musk, encouraging creators and requiring content warnings for frequent sharers.

In a recent update to its website, the San Francisco-based firm stated that users "should be able to create, distribute, and consume sexually related material as long as it is consensually produced and distributed."Sexual expression, whether visible or verbal, may be a legitimate form of artistic expression.

Adult content was allowed on pre-Musk Twitter as well, albeit no clear guideline was in place. X asserted that it restricts pornographic content for minors and adult users who prefer not to view it.

"We also restrict content promoting exploitation, nonconsent, dehumanization, sexual abuse or harm to children, and obscene behaviors," said X. It further said that pornographic content cannot be shared in "highly visible" areas such as user profile images or banners.

X's policy contrasts with that of other social media sites, like Meta's Instagram and Facebook, TikTok, and Google's YouTube.

"The platform's move to allow 'adult content' dovetails well with the company's post-Musk marketing strategy," Brooke Erin Duffy, associate professor of communication at Cornell University, stated. "X is unabashedly provocative and has sought to distinguish itself from 'brand safe' competitors."

She said that the corporation appears to be recruiting people, particularly innovators and artists, who have been ostracized by other social media platforms with policies that prohibit nudity or sexual expression.

The regulation applies to both genuine and artificial intelligence-generated items.

X is urging users who often share pornographic content to change their media settings to hide all of their photographs and videos behind a content warning. To see the shared image, people must first indicate that they wish to see it.