As a lot as this will sound like a controversial shift in direction of less-than-savory grownup content material on X (previously Twitter), it appears that evidently the story is much less salacious than it could have initially appeared.

Earlier at this time, Bloomberg reported that X is rolling out a brand new characteristic that can allow customers to create communities round grownup content material, by including an “Grownup Content material” qualifier to their teams.

As per Bloomberg:

“Customers who create a neighborhood throughout the app can specify within the settings that their group “accommodates adult-sensitive content material”. The X teams will then characteristic an “grownup content material” label. Customers who fail to label their neighborhood might see a number of the content material being filtered out or eliminated, in accordance with the screenshots of the foundations.”

That sparked hypothesis that X might truly be seeking to lean into grownup content material on the app, within the hopes of facilitating new income streams, doubtlessly by way of partnerships grownup content material creators who’re already extremely lively on the platform both means.

However X has since clarified that this isn’t a brand new shift on this course, as such.

As per X:

“To be clear, this setting is about making Communities safer for everybody by robotically filtering out NSFW content material. Solely customers who’ve specified their age will have the ability to search Communities with NSFW content material.”

So it’s a protecting measure, not a way of opening the gates to make grownup content material extra seen, and acceptable within the app. That might be a side-effect both means, however it appears that evidently X isn’t making an even bigger leap to enchantment to grownup creators simply but.

Although it nonetheless would possibly.

Again in 2022, Twitter explored the opportunity of enabling grownup content material creators to promote subscriptions within the app, in an effort to faucet into OnlyFans’ $2.5b self-made content material market.

Grownup content material, as famous, is already very current on X, and readily accessible. As such, a logical step to make more cash for the platform could be to monetize this, by leaning into this factor, relatively than simply turning a blind eye to it.

Besides, Twitter administration ultimately determined that it couldn’t do it.

Why?

As reported by The Verge:

“Earlier than the ultimate go-ahead to launch, Twitter convened 84 staff to kind what it known as a “Purple Group.” The aim was “to pressure-test the choice to permit grownup creators to monetize on the platform, by particularly specializing in what it will appear to be for Twitter to do that safely and responsibly”. What the Purple Group found derailed the undertaking: Twitter couldn’t safely enable grownup creators to promote subscriptions as a result of the corporate was not – and nonetheless isn’t – successfully policing dangerous sexual content material on the platform.”

Probably the most regarding parts raised because of this exploration had been youngster sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity, and because the platform couldn’t adequately police such, enabling the monetization of porn was a significant danger.

However X might nonetheless look on this course if it actually wants extra income streams.

Again in January, X introduced a plan to construct a brand new “Belief and Security heart of excellence” in Texas, to be able to enhance its responsiveness in addressing these particular parts. Possibly, with that in place, X might be in a greater place to truly enact such a plan, although we’ve heard little extra about this “heart of excellence”, nor has a lot progress seemingly been made.

But.

I do suppose that settings like this might be a step in direction of facilitating a separate, adults-only model of the app, which might additionally facilitate extra grownup content material, and doubtlessly offers with grownup performers, that would convey extra money to the app.

The opposite danger, in fact, is that advertisers would flee the app consequently. However actually, X doesn’t truly need extra advertisers, as they’ll then impose restrictions on its moderation choices. Ideally, X would favor to make more cash from customers and creators as a substitute.

So whereas this particular story isn’t essentially an indicator of such intentions, it might be one other step on this course. If X wants it.

And with X’s advert income nonetheless down 50%, it could properly want it, very quickly.