Free speech? Why Elon Musk's decision to allow porn on X is drawing criticism: 'All exploitative and ruinous'

Under Elon Musk's leadership, X — the social media platform formerly known as "Twitter" — will now officially allow pornographic material on the platform.

Adult content has never been censored on X. At the same time, the platform never advertised a precise policy on NSFW content.

'There’s no such thing as ethical porn. It’s all exploitative and ruinous on both an individual and a societal level.'

But that recently changed with a new policy.

The policy reads:

We believe that users should be able to create, distribute, and consume material related to sexual themes as long as it is consensually produced and distributed. Sexual expression, whether visual or written, can be a legitimate form of artistic expression. We believe in the autonomy of adults to engage with and create content that reflects their own beliefs, desires, and experiences, including those related to sexuality.

X, moreover, claims to "balance this freedom" of hosting adult content by restricting children from being exposed to it.

However, the policy does not state how X will do that. The policy explains that "users under 18 or viewers who do not include a birth date on their profile cannot click to view marked content."

But how will the platform verify the actual age of users?

As the policy stands, underage teenagers could access adult content on X by lying about their age. The policy — and the lack of safeguards — is drawing criticism.

'Distinction without a difference'

In a statement, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said it believes the policy does nothing to safeguard underage users from adult content.

"X’s new ‘policy’ is a distinction without a difference," said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the NCOSE.

"It has already allowed illegal nonconsensual content including child sexual abuse material, sex trafficking, and other sexually abusive content to flourish by simply allowing pornography on its platform. Users will not mark their content as ‘sensitive,’ nor does X have the willingness to monitor for nonconsensual content. ‘Requiring’ users to label the content as pornography is a lazy way for X to continue to avoid responsibility for perpetuating sexual abuse," Hawkins explained.

The NCOSE, moreover, believes X's policy "will fail to prevent image-based sexual abuse from continuing to flourish on the platform."

"Inevitably, X and all tech platforms that allow pornography must enact meaningful age and consent verification of everyone depicted in images or videos, otherwise image-based sexual abuse and child sexual abuse will continue to run rampant," Hawkins added.

Pro-human?

Being pro-human is a central tenet of Musk's worldview.

But according to BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey, X's adult content policy is antithetical to his pro-human value.

"If Elon Musk is as pro-human as he says he is, he will do everything possible to banish porn from X," she told Blaze News. "There’s no such thing as ethical porn. It’s all exploitative and ruinous on both an individual and a societal level."

Is it a free speech issue?

BlazeTV host Steve Deace called the policy a "trade-off" to the beneficial free speech implications of Elon Musk's ownership.

"Musk views himself as a free speech absolutist, and while that has been pretty beneficial to our side since he took over X, this is the trade-off," Deace told Blaze News.

"It also means we need to make the argument whether or not pornography is free speech. If a someone receives money to have for sex, we call it prostitution and it is a crime, so why is it free speech if they then film it?" he questioned.

Deace, moreover, warned that X's policy "will circumvent the states that are passing laws demanding porn sites do age verification in order to be seen."

Deactivation

Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, said he is deactivating his personal account and the SEBTS X accounts because of the new X policy.

"It should not surprise us when the world acts according to the world’s sinful system, but that does not mean that Christians should participate or stand by," Akin said.

"I plan to disassociate myself from the ungodly and offensive content on X and will be deactivating my personal account tomorrow," he explained.

What's the big deal?

Blaze News has reported on the growing concern that pornography is harmful and exploitative.

"It's not a free speech issue," Dr. Donald Hilton, M.D., a Texas-based neurosurgeon, told Blaze News.

"That's what the pornography industry and its apologists will say, 'Well, yes, we don't want children to be exposed, but what you're doing with this law is you're hampering the free speech of consenting adults,'" he explained. "And so what they're saying is, 'We need to be able to continue to have a system that harms children until you find a system that protects children but doesn't hurt adults.' So they want to be able to continue to harm the children."

"Unless consenting adults can figure out a way to completely protect the children first, the impetus should be from that direction, not the other way around," he said.

Dr. Gail Dines, a progressive feminist and anti-porn scholar, believes the poison of pornography threatens society.

"There has to be a national debate with government involved," she told Blaze News. "Is this the kind of culture we want to live in? Do we want our kids to have access to this? Do we want grown men to have access to this given what we know the effects are?"

"What's at stake is the well-being of our next generation. What's at stake is the levels of violence against women and children — sexual violence increasing," she added. "In fact, the very nature of the society is what's at risk."

X's policy, then, normalizes pornography access and exposes more people to adult content who might not otherwise seek it out.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!