X makes rules tweaks, reintroduces adult and violent content policies

MANILA, Philippines – Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, announced replacements to two of its former policies: the site’s sensitive media and violent speech policies.

In an X post on Tuesday, June 4, X’s Safety account stated, “We have launched Adult Content and Violent Content policies to bring more clarity of our rules and transparency into enforcement of these areas. These policies replace our former Sensitive Media and Violent Speech policies – but what we enforce against hasn’t changed.”

While X hasn’t really banned porn in any interim, the Adult Content policies do state that users posting such are required to adjust their settings to label the content as sensitive in nature. This applies to all forms of adult content, including what the policy called “AI-generated, photographic, or animated content such as cartoons, hentai, or anime.” Meanwhile, users under 18 or viewers without a birth date on their profile cannot view such marked content.

Meanwhile, the policy on violent content also had a similar note to label or mark the content where needed, saying, “You may share graphic media if it is properly labeled, not prominently displayed, and is not excessively gory or depicting sexual violence.”

It added that “explicitly threatening, inciting, glorifying, or expressing desire for violence is not allowed.”

The move to realign its policies on violent and adult content doesn’t mention who’ll be in charge of monitoring and enforcement of the two policies, however.

The Verge, in its reporting, noted how social media platforms and sites have had troubles with maintaining adult content, with Tumblr’s porn ban in 2018 – and the subsequent semi-backtracking some years later – and payment processors like Visa and Mastercard notably enforcing bans on sites like Pornhub.

It can also be recalled X previously had a problem with deepfake content, namely explicit deepfake images of Taylor Swift, among other things.

X’s policies on adult content and violent content are viewable here and here. – Rappler.com