[ad_1]
When Twitter) launched paid membership verification, Mistress Rouge, a professional dominatrix, hoped it would help her advertise to new clients. But paying for the service didn’t protect her from X’s crackdown on explicit content, which is a particularly hard blow for sex workers on the platform, who have few options to promote themselves elsewhere.
โIt basically did nothing for my Twitter engagement,โ Mistress Rogue told TechCrunch over DM. โI feel like a fool for paying this. I feel fooled by Elon Musk.
X Premium, the subscription formerly known as Twitter Blue, was supposed to offer users more than just a blue check mark. For a $7.99 monthly fee, the service promises prioritized ranking, giving answers from verified users higher than answers from non-verified users. This is also believed to lead to posts that encourage engagement from verified users X’s Help Center,
Under Musk’s leadership, X has become increasingly hostile towards nudity and explicit content. This week, X started marking NSFW posts as “sensitive content” Rolling Stone reported, and banning flagged accounts to limit their reach. Sex workers said their engagement was successful and their accounts would no longer appear in X searches, even if they were not informed about being flagged. In screenshots shared with Rolling Stone and posted online, May also be excluded from following timelines, recommended notifications, and trends. ,
Mistress Rogue is one of many sex workers who want to cancel their membership due to the punitive measures X is taking against adult content.
Mistress Rogge added, “I thought it would help my engagement but now I think it’s a waste of money.”
Sex workers were quick to adopt Twitter Blue in the hope that the increase in engagement would protect them from the shadowbanning and inconsistent censorship they typically face on social media. Paying for subscriptions, even if they didn’t support Musk’s changes to the platform, was essential for many sex workers To avoid being deplatformed,
Twitter was one of the only social media sites that tolerated explicit content, and until Musk’s acquisition, it was thriving center for sex workers Sharing resources, finding community, and promoting their services. The culture of the site was heavily influenced by strippers, adult content producers, and full-service escorts, who drove both traffic and memes. But now being branded as X, the site is becoming less tolerant of nudity, pornography, and sexual activity of any kind.
The action affected those accounts, regardless of their X Premium subscription. A sex worker who goes by Mara Villana on X warned fellow NSFW creators that her verified account has been flagged and banned. In response to his post, he speculated that โThey are trying to get rid of SW’s app [sex work] Totally.” Mara Vilana did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Twitter allowed consensual porn, but X’s sensitive media policy Prohibits adult nudity and sexual behavior, which it defines as media “that is obscene or intended to cause sexual arousal.” This policy applies to full or partial nudity, simulated sexual acts, and sexual acts depicted by “cartoons, hentai, or anime involving humans or depictions of animals with human-like characteristics.” Under X’s policy, even suggestive imagery is marked as sensitive media.
Alleria, a dominatrix who subscribes to X Premium, said one of her posts was flagged even though it did not contain explicit nudity. The image, which was reviewed by TechCrunch, was a heavily pixelated shot of Alleria’s crotch, further obscured by a black bar. In white text above the bar, the image read, “No cats for beta losers.”
“I think that was the word that started it, because nudity has become blurred,” Alleria said. “It’s already censored.”
She said she is “not happy” with paying for the X premium because it only increases views on her replies to other people’s posts, not her own posts. She had to go “PG rated” with her X content, and saw a slight spike in her post views when she began connecting with users outside the NSFW community.
She said, “I honestly don’t understand why “You would think that targeting consensual adult nude content would be the last thing that X should be doing.”
In its rush to suppress adult content, X is neglecting to control the misinformation and violent rhetoric spreading on the platform.
Misinformation on X has become widespread, particularly in light of the escalating conflict in Gaza. The EU has already warned X publicly For failing to stop the spread of illegal content and misinformation following Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel. Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, the responsibility lies with large online platforms like X to reduce the “risk to public security” posed by disinformation. Graphic content claiming to be footage of violent clashes continues to go viral, despite experts dismissing the posts as doctored, fictional, or in other areas related to past events.
While X spent this week censoring sex workers, other Blue Check accounts โ verified through X Premium โ have been spreading misinformation about the conflict With little or no consequences.
In his daily threads on misinformation, BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh consistently rejects claims made by verified accounts, including one account that falsely said Hamas had carried out airstrikes on Israel. The video posted by the verified account was a clip from the video game “Arma 3”.
Alleria warned against banning porn, which is already being investigated by government agencies Banned in many states, is a “slippery slope” for targeting LGBTQ communities. He said, if governments are given the power to decide what consenting adults are allowed to share in the media, then banning porn will ultimately affect everyone.
Mistress Alexxia, an adult content creator, described the increasing censorship of sex workers as “digital discrimination”. one in Thread Regarding X’s hostility towards NSFW content, he criticized Musk as “the complete opponent of free speech”.
“Swerves are guinea pigs that are used [the] Change in policy and access to information because the general public doesn’t care about us or just plain hates us,” she says. wrote, “*Your* rights end after this.”
Alleria said she would keep paying for X Premium, even if reluctantly, as long as she could post links on adult sites. Although she considered turning to Reddit or Bluesky to promote her services, she is “not giving up on this site yet.”
โI mean Elon is unpredictable. Anything is possible with him,โ Alleria said. โBut unless he’s aiming to post links to adult content, I’m not concerned. Adult content creators adapt.
