Elon Musk was supposed to bring free speech back to Twitter. And to his credit, he freed quite a few Twitter prisoners who were unjustly shut down for heterodox viewpoints. Hailed at the time by conservatives, the new policy updates over at the newly named “X” might trouble Musk’s former champions: pornography is now officially accepted on the platform.

There was always explicit content on the social media giant, but it was never explicitly allowed or outlawed in its policies. Now, consensually created smut is approved. Over the last few weeks, “porn bots” seemed to increasingly be invading people’s comment sections. Many people I followed said they would leave the platform if Musk didn’t start cleaning the site up. Instead, they got the opposite: an open-armed invitation to expand and legalize pornography on X.

The following is from X’s Help Center:

You may share consensually produced and distributed adult nudity or sexual behavior, provided it’s properly labeled and not prominently displayed.

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. We balance this freedom by restricting exposure to Adult Content for children or adult users who choose not to see it. We also prohibit content promoting exploitation, nonconsent, objectification, sexualization or harm to minors, and obscene behaviors. We also do not allow sharing Adult Content in highly visible places such as profile photos or banners.

Adult Content Policy (x.com)

The pushback against the decision continues as users are concerned that the site will come to resemble little more than a traditional pornography website. Despite Musk’s approval of free speech, many question whether porn qualifies as “speech,” as the policy update seems to suggest.

The news arrives amidst a flurry of discourse surrounding Jonathan Haidt’s new research-based book The Anxious Generation, which points to pornography as one of the leading hazards associated with our phone-based world.