Twitter’s German-Specific Porn Block Is Not The Way Forward

Selectively blocking individual Twitter feeds in specific countries will not placate the censorial and feels like the thin end of the wedge.

For the last few weeks, one of the intriguing questions for those of us who have been observing such things has been: how Twitter and Reddit will react if the sites are brought under the British government’s Online Harms legislation that requires porn sites – now newly defined to include any site carrying even the smallest amount of porn, however that rather subjective concept is eventually defined – to put in place strong and intrusive age verification software? The assumption has been that it might see those sites joining the others that, having once profited rather nicely from porn, decided to throw the sex industry and its workers under the bus the moment that things became inconvenient either legally or commercially. Why, in fact, wouldn’t they, you might ask – after all, porn is not their raison d’etre or even where the profits lie and they have long shown that their commitment to free speech is flexible, to say the least. You could argue that they have nothing to lose – and possibly much to gain – by banning porn (which, given that they are American companies, we must assume will include nudity of any sort). Certainly, the idea that the sites will support the rights of sex workers and porn producers even though it will inconvenience and lose users who don’t want to submit credit card details or passport photos just to access the services seems laughable.

However, it turns out that Twitter at least has a solution to the problem. A sledgehammer solution that probably won’t please anyone, of course, but a solution nevertheless. Wired has revealed that since the end of 2020, Twitter in Germany has been blocking porn-related accounts in that country without actually removing the account itself. If you are outside Germany, you will probably still see these accounts on your feed if you follow them. If you own one of those accounts, you probably had no idea that you were being blocked in one country, because why would you? But if you are in Germany, you won’t see these accounts and if you try to visit their page, you’ll get a notice that it is ‘withheld’. You won’t see their photos, profile or posts – any posts, even text-only non-pornographic posts. These accounts are effectively dead in Germany.

It’s a rather random selection – some sixty accounts are affected apparently, which is a drop in the porn ocean. It seems that they are either very popular (and so high-profile) accounts or those that someone has complained about. It seems that at the moment, Twitter is taking a reactive rather than proactive approach, banning the accounts that it has been told to – but that, of course, could change. Given that porn posts are required to be marked as ‘sensitive’ in order to restrict access to users who are under eighteen (something self-declared without verification by users), the site could easily institute sitewide blocking in any country.

Now, you might think that Twitter is not the place for porn – and certainly, I’ve had to unfollow several accounts because you really don’t need unexpected porn images popping up when sitting on the bus. But we should remember that this content is not slipped into your feed by chance – you need to be following the accounts that are posting it (or at least someone who retweets it) and if you find porn offensive, then the solution seems pretty simple – don’t follow the people who post it. Those people who claim that in turns up unexpectedly to upset them are either liars or else need to think about just who they follow. A cynic might think that they are simply seeking out things to find offensive.

And we might also consider just what will be classified as ‘porn’ by sites like Twitter if they are forced to block it. Given that Facebook thinks that buttocks and breastfeeding are obscene images, I think that it would be optimistic to believe that Twitter would draw the line at hardcore porn, especially if they are made to block all pornographic images or risk a huge fine. As we’ve seen with just about every attempt to define what is or isn’t pornographic, those trying to make that definition will err heavily on the side of caution. More to the point, the block is unlikely to stop at just imagery – sex workers who only post clothed photos have been booted off platforms like Instagram because of who they are, not what they post. Links to OnlyFans and similar sites will probably be swept up in the list of the forbidden and it’s not a big stretch to imagine huge purges of sex workers, sex writers and sex researchers in the future. It’ll be as easy for Twitter to block certain words, context be damned, as it will to block images.

Those who thought that the British porn block would result in a global fatwa against sex workers on social media might be breathing a sigh of relief – though they really shouldn’t, because this is just the start. Germany, France, Britain and Australia are leading the way in marginalising and shaming porn and porn users – and it is likely that others will follow suit if this is allowed to happen, each country with slightly different rules that everyone will have to somehow negotiate even when they conflict and contradict each other. It feels like a dreadful step backwards and a doomed-to-fail cure to a problem that is both exaggerated and misunderstood while invading privacy and opening people up to blackmail and fraud. Still, it’s better than having to actually teach kids about sex, relationships and their understanding of porn as fiction, not reality – because that’s just awkward, right?

DAVID FLINT

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