X resides as much as its title. The platform, previously Twitter, is engaged on an addition to its Communities function that may let X customers create teams for X-rated materials, in accordance with app researchers.
Researcher Daniel Buchuk of Watchful, which analyzes app growth and efficiency, discovered the function by means of reverse engineering the app. He shared screenshots with TechCrunch completely, which present what X’s NSFW Communities might seem like.
Picture Credit: Watchful (opens in a new window)
An impartial researcher, Nima Owji, additionally noticed the function in growth final month.
Twitter introduced its Communities feature in 2021. It permits customers to put up inside smaller, interest-based subgroups, like a subreddit. When Elon Musk bought Twitter final yr, he enacted sweeping modifications to the app’s brand identity, verification systems and creator monetization efforts — however some options, like Communities, remained stagnant.
X additionally hasn’t taken a lot initiative in working with its sizable population of online sex workers, who flip to the platform — certainly one of few that permits grownup content material — to advertise their paid choices from websites like OnlyFans.
“Twitter really is the primary advertising venue at this point for sex workers,” Dr. Olivia Snow, a dominatrix and researcher at UCLA’s Heart for Vital Web Inquiry, advised TechCrunch final yr. So, the platform’s more-lenient coverage on grownup content material is important for on-line intercourse staff to develop their companies.
X didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Grownup creators are allowed to put up express content material on X, although they will’t monetize it on the platform. But when they will create their very own fan communities, this function might give creators a extra direct solution to attain their viewers.
Although X appears to be engaged on this NSFW Communities function, that doesn’t imply it’ll come to fruition. Shortly after Musk took management of the platform, reverse engineers uncovered potential options that may permit creators to monetize paywalled movies or cost cash for DMs. These mockups regarded much like options on OnlyFans, which could possibly be a method for Musk to recoup his $44 billion funding: monetizing “X videos.”
However because it stands, X doesn’t appear poised to reverse its stance on grownup content material monetization. Even earlier than Musk’s takeover, Twitter had been engaged on an OnlyFans competitor, nevertheless it was shelved as a result of Twitter couldn’t adequately detect non-consensual content material and youngster sexual exploitation (CSE). However X says it’s mitigating that dire drawback. In accordance with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, in 2023 the platform suspended 12.4 million accounts for violating youngster sexual exploitation insurance policies, up from 2.3 million accounts eliminated in 2022.
