Twitter May Allow Monetizing of Adult or Ban It, Report Claims

LOS ANGELES—In December of 2018, the social media platform Tumblr, which had previously been a haven for adult content and sexual expression, announced it would ban all porn from its site. Last year, rumors swept the internet claiming that Twitter, another major media platform, would soon follow suit. But a new analysis by TechNadu columnist and online threat expert, Bill Toulas, claims that Twitter may, in fact, go in the opposite direction — embracing adult content and even allowing adult performers to make money off of their Twitter posts. Twitter hosts thousands of porn performer accounts, and while some performers use the platform primarily to communicate with fans and post announcements of upcoming events, many also provide samples of their work, posting explicit video and imagery.  Under current Twitter policy, such explicit posts are permissible as long as the subjects of the images appear with their consent, and the posts are marked as “sensitive,” which shields the post from the view of Twitter users who choose not to see them. As Toulas noted in his TechNadu analysis, Tumblr appears to be “gradually slipping to obsolescence” after banning adult content. Indeed, Tumblr’s parent company, Verizon, sold the platform at a reported loss of $1 billion just eight months after the porn ban — though buyers Automatic Inc., owners of the popular online publishing platform WordPress, said that it would keep the porn ban in place. “Twitter wouldn’t want to take that chance right now,” Toulas wrote. “On the contrary, they may move in the opposite direction by embracing performers and letting them monetize their social media followings.” Another recent analysis, however, saw the Twitter situation in a more dire light. While the platform appears to have no current plans to ban porn, wrote Mashable reporter Mark Hay last week, “many social media and adult industry experts still believe those working in the porn industry have good reason to fear an eventual Twitter porn-pocalypse.” New privacy laws in California as well as the European Union may be driving Twitter toward a crackdown on porn, according to Hay. The 2018 FOSTA/SESTA law, which holds platforms legally liable for content that could be construed as “sex trafficking” — even if the platforms did not know about that content — has also made online adult content a riskier business. “Whatever path Twitter opts for, it will undoubtedly send ripples across the adult content industry,” Toulas wrote. “Banning porn will be a catastrophe for ‘minority’ sexually-orientated communities that could be lined up next in the moderation pipeline.”  Photo By Thomas Ulrich / Pixabay