leak <\/a>showing that the feature was being built with adult content in mind.<\/p>\nTwitter already allows users to post adult content, but they haven\u2019t been allowed to monetize it \u2014 what if with these new features, that became possible? That plan might seem like it comes out of left field, but it\u2019s arguably a better idea than charging people for a blue check.<\/p>\n
\u201cPre-Musk acquisition, I would have said it\u2019s impossible,\u201d said Ashley, a sex worker and peer organizer who works on cases involving content moderation.<\/p>\n
Many creator platforms don\u2019t even try to monetize adult content since it\u2019s such a legal and regulatory minefield. But the wealthiest man in the world is going to get more leeway than your average tech founder, and we know that Musk doesn\u2019t play by the same rules as everyone else. To secure his Twitter takeover, Musk leveraged relationships with banks like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America \u2014 banks that are now also on the hook if he can\u2019t squeeze value out of Twitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in this social in-group that includes all the usual suspects that pressure companies to dump adult content,\u201d Ashley explained. But she thinks that because he\u2019s part of their world, they might be more willing to cooperate with him. \u201cHe\u2019s entrenched in this entire ecosystem of venture. He\u2019s their guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, figuring out how to safely and securely monetize adult content is one of the trickiest questions on the internet, not to mention one that requires a lot of nuance, empathy and understanding for particularly vulnerable people \u2014 something Musk has proven he can\u2019t handle. But if he can hire the right team to build out a product with safety and security at the forefront, adult content could be Musk\u2019s best bet to recoup his investment.<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n
Twitter is uniquely positioned to undercut OnlyFans<\/h2>\n
Twitter is the only major social media site that allows users to post porn. So, for online sex workers, Twitter has historically functioned as an advertising tool for their OnlyFans accounts. But what if those creators could just monetize on-platform and bypass the friction of sending fans elsewhere?<\/p>\n
\u201cSex sells\u201d isn\u2019t a cliche for nothing, and OnlyFans\u2019 financials prove it. In 2021, the company earned $433 million in pre-tax profit, up from $61 million in 2020. The company makes its money by taking a 20% cut of all payments to creators \u2014 since 2016, the company has paid out $8 billion to creators, with $4 billion of that paid out in 2021 alone.<\/p>\n
The market for online sex work is large enough that it could compensate for the fallout from advertisers.<\/p>\n
For comparison, the more mainstream creator monetization platform Patreon has paid out $3.5 billion to creators since it was founded in 2013. Put it this way: OnlyFans paid more money to creators in 2021 than Patreon has paid out in its existence. That\u2019s because there\u2019s a fundamental difference between the two companies\u2019 business models: One figured out how to monetize porn despite pressure from credit card companies, and one bowed out of the adult realm altogether.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time Twitter has considered pivoting to porn. According to a report from The Verge, Twitter worked on an adult content monetization project this past spring, which would have built upon its not-very-lucrative creator products like Super Follows. But when a security team pressure-tested the product, they wrote in a report that \u201cTwitter cannot accurately detect child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity at scale.\u201d When Musk proposed his buyout weeks later and threw the entire company into disarray, the project was put on hold.<\/p>\n
Twitter shouldn\u2019t expand its adult offerings if it can\u2019t adequately protect users from abusive material \u2014 plus, it will need to match the same security checks that OnlyFans has. OnlyFans is a completely 18+ platform, and in order for creators to upload their content, they must submit documentation to verify that all people depicted are 18+ and have provided written consent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCan Twitter safely monetize porn?<\/h2>\n
Here\u2019s where the plan gets murky. Do we trust an Elon Musk-run Twitter \u2014 or any iteration of Twitter, really \u2014 to sell adult content in an ethical way? Is it possible for Twitter to moderate content well enough to make sure that only opted-in adults are seeing porn on the platform, and that the platform doesn\u2019t inadvertently end up hosting or even monetizing child sexual abuse material (CSAM)?<\/p>\n
\u201cTwitter has so much work to do to ensure that it is following the same best practices to moderate their content that we hold women-owned adult platforms to,\u201d said a team member at Amefist, a women\u2019s digital security platform. \u201cBefore they pivot to adult content, it would be a more refreshing and impactful change to address the way they moderate currently and work to fight the distribution of CSAM before they make sensitive content a part of their business model.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nU.S. federal law requires<\/span> that internet companies report each instance of CSAM they encounter on their platforms to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). In 2020, NCMEC\u2019s data<\/span> showed that Twitter made about 65,000 reports \u2014 for comparison, Pornhub parent company MindGeek made 13,000 reports. <\/span><\/p>\nMusk doesn\u2019t seem to care a ton about platform safety, so it\u2019s hard to be optimistic. Even in a pre-Musk era, Twitter has proven insufficient at preventing the spread of harmful content.<\/span>\u00a0But if he wants to pay back his investors and make his $44 billion nightmare a dream, he might have no choice.<\/p>\n\u201cThe humor is not lost on me that the richest man in the world needs money fast and has turned to sex work, just like I have,\u201d Ashley told . \u201cIf I were OnlyFans, I\u2019d be terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n