SAN FRANCISCO — X.com users have begun reporting instances of Elon Musk’s new shadow-ban transparency policy, under which accounts are flagged by the company without user input for “potentially” containing sensitive media.
The policies were first announced by Musk earlier this year, and were unveiled by X designer Andrea Conway in September.
Flagging limits visibility of the targeted account on the entire platform.
Users have started to notice alerts in the notifications tab that read, “We've added a label to your account which may impact its reach.”
The information panel accessible through that notification explains, “We have found that your account potentially contains sensitive media — such as graphic, violent, nudity, sexual behavior, hateful symbols, or other sensitive content. We may cover your posts with a warning so people who don’t want to see sensitive content can avoid it. The reach of your account and its content may also be restricted, such as being excluded from the For You and Following timelines, recommended notifications, trends, and search results.”
X has previously said that users may appeal the label, but the company has provided no guidance on how to do so.
Adult creators have begun questioning this “pre-crime” enforcement philosophy reminiscent of the 2002 dystopic sci-fi film “Minority Report,” in which potential offenders are prejudicially identified and targeted as actual rule breakers.
On Wednesday, reigning XBIZ Best Fetish Cam Model Fatal Goth posted, “Apparently X is now flagging accounts with nudity even if their media was always marked as sensitive and thus reducing their reach regardless. Why am I paying for Twitter Blue again?”
As Fortune magazine reported in September when the system was previewed, Twitter/X “has limited visibility on posts that broke its rules in the past, but this is the first time it has put limits on entire accounts.”
