Musk Owns Twitter; What Does it Mean for Adult Creators?

After months of fighting and legal action, Musk finally sucked it up and purchased the troubled social media asset after other investors have announced concern of the company’s overall long-term success and viability.

Just installed as the CEO of Twitter, Musk said that he is taking the whole company private and is adopting a new corporate strategy that is scaring thousands of users from the site. Before Musk, Twitter, while not a perfect avenue for adult creators, permitted cases of full nudity and sexual content on their platform. How will Musk treat adult entertainment accounts? Adult entertainment industry personalities and models who utilize Twitter as a marketing channel should pay very close attention to the developments at the company.

One case to consider is verified accounts for public figures, including adult content creators and porn sites. Senior management, including Musk, announced a plan to charge verified users a recurring monthly fee to keep the highly covered checkmark account status.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Musk got in a spat with horror author Stephen King when there was a news report suggesting that $20 per month to keep the blue checkmark is a terrible idea. “$20 a month to keep my blue check?” King tweeted. “Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.” Once a member of King’s nearly seven million followers on the platform pointed out that he can afford the fee, the author said that, “it ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing.” Musk replied by offering $8 per month as an option.

Celebrities and public figures, in troves, have closed their Twitter accounts or their intent to leave the site. Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the long-running medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” said that she is leaving the platform. Rhimes tweeted: “Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye.” The apparent list of entertainment industry figures leaving Twitter continues to grow, which now includes Toni Braxton, Brian Koppelman, and Erik Larsen. High value advertisers have also left Twitter.

One of the issues, notes NBC News, is that Musk considers himself a free speech absolutist and has referred to Twitter as the digital town square. This sort of posturing signals to users that he intends to remove bans on controversial account holders, including former President Donald Trump and a plethora of far-right trolls. Musk has also said that he takes issue with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which grants a safe harbor from liability of the actions of third party users and encourages self regulation and content moderation among platforms.

This is notable for three reasons. First, courts across the United States, including the Supreme Court to some degree, have ruled that Section 230 and self regulation by online platforms is constitutional. Second, the scope of Section 230 is due for review under the current Supreme Court that leans right-wing. Members of the high court, like social conservative Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, are licking their lips for the opportunity to determine whether Section 230 is too broad. Lastly, there is no chance, or way, that free speech on Twitter will be guaranteed because the site is privately owned and the First Amendment only protects against government censorship, not corporate.

Already, Musk is experiencing the challenges of dealing with Section 230 by leaving high-profile bans in place. This includes Trump’s ban after he was removed from the platform for life amid the January 6 insurrection and for flooding the internet with his bunk disinformation and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen in favor of the President Joe Biden.

What is Musk’s definition of free speech absolutism? If he is such a proponent of free speech on the internet, then Musk will simply continue to permit all adult content and provide a home for studios, pleasure retailers, and others who do business in some segment of the adult entertainment industry.