BERLIN — Confirming the fears of sex workers and advocates around the world, Twitter has reportedly begun blocking German profiles that include adult content, after a local government official escalated a campaign to force the platform to implement age verification systems designed for “pornographic websites.”
According to a report published today by Wired, Twitter “has been blocking the profiles of adult content creators in Germany since late 2020, with at least 60 accounts affected to date.”
“Anyone trying to view one of the blocked accounts in Germany,” the report continues, “sees a message saying it has been ‘withheld’ in Germany ‘in response to a legal demand.’ The exact number of accounts blocked in this way is unknown.”
As sex workers' rights and digital rights advocates have been pointing out for years, when pushed by politicians in power to choose between “age blocking” itself into a digital “red light district,” or just censoring all adult content and sexual expression, Twitter “has responded to legal demands by outright blocking the accounts for anyone in Germany.”
“Under German law, regulators say, Twitter accounts posting pornographic content should not be accessible as there are no age-checks in place to make sure that people viewing them are over the age of 18,” Wired writer Matt Burgess explained.
Similar Government Pressure Imminent in U.K., France
The news from Berlin comes only a few days after some U.K. media outlets broke ranks with virtually all of their competitors, eschewing standardized parroting of stigmatizing reportage about sex work.
Instead, they began warning of the threat to free speech and the livelihood of sex workers presented by Boris Johnson’s government's attempt to force Twitter to choose between mandatory age verification and censoring adult content.
As XBIZ reported yesterday, U.K. government officials confirmed last week that social media sites “hosting large amounts of pornographic material, such as Twitter and Reddit” would have to “introduce systems to remove adult material in the U.K., or introduce age checks to determine whether users are over 18,” per a report in The Guardian yesterday.
Starting on Feb. 7, in what some have interpreted as an attempt to divert attention away from mounting accusations of Tory corruption and “sleaze,” Johnson’s government launched a publicity blitz regarding its intention to fast-track mandatory age verification for adult content online.
Similar measures are being pushed in France, Australia and Canada, as part of a global War on Porn led by increasingly well-funded American faith-oriented groups like NCOSE, coordinating with like-minded anti-porn crusaders worldwide.
Last December, the French government issued ultimatums to five adult websites — Pornhub, xHamster, XVideos, XNXX and Tukif — to implement age verification measures, or face being completely blocked in the entire country. That ultimatum was prompted by pressure from several groups that claim to advocate on behalf of “children’s rights.” Those groups have been campaigning to speed up implementation of age verification, which was mandated by a controversial amendment tacked onto a French domestic violence law passed in the summer of 2020.
German Regulator: 'We will continue' Demanding That Twitter Block Adult Profiles
Back in Germany, digital rights group Netzpolitik.org published an editorial warning against the onslaught by self-proclaimed “youth protectors” attempting to use the country’s court system to force a government ban on adult tube sites.
For years, a one-man War on Porn has been conducted in Germany by Tobias Schmid, an obscure, conservative local bureaucrat from the North Rhine-Westphalia region. Analyzing how a minor regional zealot managed to ram through a seemingly imminent blanket block of Germany's most-visited porn sites, the editorial points out that the present situation is the result of “many small administrative steps” in the background.
“Only when viewed as a whole does the net political impact emerge,” Netzpolitik explained.
But Schmid's crusade has moved up from its picturesque North Rhine-Westphalia beginnings. Today, Wired quoted a higher federal authority, Marc Jan Eumann, chairman of the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz — or Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media — who stated that he thinks “porn on social media is a problem.”
Eumann claims he thinks it’s important that everyone has “freedom of expression” online, but considers it “obviously unlawful” to distribute pornography without age verification systems in place.
“We are looking for dialog with these companies,” Eumann told Wired. “Twitter, for example, blocked porn profiles for German users after we instigated legal proceedings. We were actually the first authority in Europe to do so and we will continue.”
As many sex workers and advocates have pointed out, mandating age verification on any site that might host sexual expression deemed “pornographic” by local authorities would result, in practice, in a serious threat to free speech, to LGBTQ+ education and to the ability of sex workers to market their content and make a living.
Since sex workers are stigmatized and discriminated against by platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, Twitter and Reddit are currently two of the few general-interest online spaces that tolerate adult content. They also provide sex workers with the ability to promote accounts on premium fan platforms such as OnlyFans, an option that has become crucial to their income and livelihood.
