Please Stop Freaking Out About a “2020 Twitter Porn Ban” (Out)

Read the full article by Mikelle Street at Out.com 

The past three to five years have seen a widespread darkening wave of censorship in terms of sex-related content on the internet. The most impactful assaults on this type of content were the dismantling of the Craigslist personal classifieds section and Tumblr’s full out ban on adult content. So it's understandable that people are incredibly sensitive when it looks as if another platform is headed in that direction. But you guys are doing the most.

Last week, reports begin to surface that a new Twitter Terms of Service (TOS) update set to be implemented in January 2020 signaled an impending ban on pornography on the famously open social platform.

One aspect of the TOS that did get an update in wording that might be pertinent to those who post porn was pointed out by XBIZ. One new clause says “We may also remove or refuse to distribute any Content on the Services, limit distribution or visibility of any Content on the service, suspend or terminate users, and reclaim usernames without liability to you.” The “limit distribution or visibility of any Content on the service” is an update that will go into effect on January 1, 2020. But what does this mean?

The Twitter spokesperson we spoke to said that the policy has always been there, “we have just clarified the language.” What this essentially means is that, this is something that Twitter has long done, and is now putting words to it.

XBIZ surmised — and we are inclined to agree — that this is simply verbalizing the app’s ongoing practice of shadowbanning. For accounts who post primarily adult content, Twitter sometimes makes it more difficult to find their account handles, and even sometimes makes it impossible to search the account’s tweets using the in-app tool. And while that definitely sucks and requires some maneuvering, it does not constitute a looming NSFW ban on the service.