X confirms NSFW Communities are on the way،
It looks like X (formerly Twitter) is getting spicier. Well, at least its Communities feature is. Admins will soon be able to label their subreddit-style groups as “adult content,” a move that follows rumors swirling around X's potential adoption of NSFW material.
The news was announced, almost by chance, by X engineer Dong Wook Chung. in a recent article. Chung hinted that “soon” your X feed could be much more filtered, with NSFW content automatically hidden in communities. The trap ? Administrators can decide whether or not their community gets the “Mature” label.
Some might think this deserves a shrug, but many saw it coming. Bloomberg reported that researchers had already discovered hints some time ago that X would enable “adult-sensitive” content settings. Remember, X has always allowed a little riskier content than other social media apps. But profile photos and community banners… that's where the limit is.
X “Communities” themselves aren’t even a Musk invention. Twitter began toying with the concept in 2021, promising a whole new level of friendly conversation. What Twitter never promised was whether this comfort would be, well, adult-themed. And like Engadget highlights this, let's not forget that for a hot minute in 2022, the company reportedly flirted with the idea of launching an OnlyFans rival. Talk about a change of direction! These plans were reportedly abandoned due to the imminent risk that it would make X's existing problems with illegal child exploitation material infinitely worse.
To clarify further, Chung released another statement about it, saying that “this setting aims to make communities safer for everyone by automatically filtering NSFW content” and that X will require users to specify their age in order to search for these NSFW communities. However, it all seems like a powder keg with a very short fuse. We'll have to wait and see what happens once the filter is activated.
