Twitter Bans Porn on Vine

Silicon Valley’s gentle crusade against adult content continues.

Two years after an attempt to crack down on adult content in the stream in 2010, Twitter developed one of the most grown-up approaches to user content in the history of mainstream social platforms.

Instead of censoring users, in 2012 Twitter began asking them to self-police by labeling their own media “sensitive” if they thought it might offend or place other users in uncomfortable positions (say, while at work). Of course, other users were given the ability to police their communities as well, by reporting to Twitter content that had not been labeled as “sensitive.” The word “sensitive” wasn’t a euphemism for porn, either — the umbrella terms has since the beginning included not only adult content but also violent imagery and media featuring medical procedures.

“Sensitive” content is opt-in — that means that by default, “sensitive” content creates in-stream warnings for other users, which they can let pass by in their streams, or acknowledge and click through to see the content. To quit getting warnings and see all the content, users have to go into their settings and manually check a box saying they want “sensitive” media displayed at all times.

The same month that Twitter adopted this freedom-forward policy, Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll founded a little clip-sharing app called Vine, which was scooped up by Twitter four months later for a reported $30 million. Vine debuted its free app in the Apple App Store on January 24, 2013 to great fanfare, including an Apple Editor’s Choice Award. But five days later, the unthinkable happened: Vine got yanked by the App Store.

Apple’s ire came after a clip titled “Dildoplay” was marked as an Editor’s Pick on Vine on January 28. Twitter responded saying the selection had been “human error” without clarifying further — they didn’t really have to, as their terms were fairly open about adult content. “Upon realizing this mistake we removed the video immediately,” said the company. “We apologize to our users for the error.”

Unfortunately for Twitter, the snafu brought adult content present on Vine to the attention of the mainstream media, which proceeded to hyperventilate about the possibility that minors may begin following people whose content is pornographic in nature. Twitter said at the time that it would begin placing warnings on Vine content similar to those seen on Twitter. On February 5, Twitter complied with a request from Apple to raise the minimum age limit to 17 for its Vine app.

Despite the hiccup, by April Vine was the most-downloaded free app in the Apple App Store. Vine became available for Android users on Google Play in June and by August, Vine revealed it had more than 40 million users.

But increasingly, Twitter has come to realize how difficult it is for social networks to allow people to self-express in today’s sex-negative and panic-prone environment. Despite refusing to do away with porn after the “Dildoplay” incident that infuriated Apple, Twitter nevertheless began to hide results for certain hashtags on Vine, like #nsfw and #boobs. And now, a year later, it has finally decided to give in and ban the porn.

In a hilarious bit of journalism, CNN has linked these policy changes to a young man who became microfamous after releasing clips of himself going at a Pop Tart box and then a Hot Pocket like Jason Biggs went at warm apple pie.

“Yeah, I would definitely recommend it, if you’re lonely,” the 18-year-old told FirstWeFeast’s Chris Schonberger. “I wouldn’t recommend putting it on Vine, but I’d recommend fuckin’ a Hot Pocket probably. It wasn’t bad. It’s messy, though.”

His account on Vine was suspended though the company didn’t have restrictions on content at that point. The most troubling thing is that his Twitter account, @VERSACEPOPTARTS, has also been suspended even though Twitter remains free of a ban on adult content. What does this mean? Is the change of policy really for Vine or is Twitter taking the slow and gentle, but tried and tested Silicon Valley route against adult content?

“As we’ve watched the community and your creativity grow and evolve, we’ve found that there’s a very small percentage of videos that are not a good fit for our community,” read the announcement about the policy change on the Vine blog. “So we’re making an update to our Rules and Terms of Service to prohibit explicit sexual content. For more than 99 percent of our users, this doesn’t really change anything. For the rest: we don’t have a problem with explicit sexual content on the Internet –– we just prefer not to be the source of it.”

A post on the Twitter Help Center elaborates on what, exactly, Vine is banning: “Pornographic or explicit sexual content is not allowed on Vine. Explicit sexual content includes depictions of sex acts, nudity that is sexually provocative or in a sexual context, and graphic depictions of sexual arousal.”

Among the examples of what’s not acceptable, the post lists: “Sex acts, whether alone or with another person, use of sex toys for sex acts, sexually provocative nudity (for example, posts that focus on exposed genitalia or depict nudity in a context or setting that is sexually provocative like a strip club), close-ups of aroused genitals underneath clothing, art or animation that is sexually graphic (such as hentai).”

Vine was quick to add that it allows “depictions of nudity or partial nudity that are primarily documentary, educational or artistic in nature. We also allow suggestive posts, just not sexually explicit ones.”

No word on whether two strippers hanging out in the back room at work would be acceptable under documentary or just too suggestive by virtue of being, you know, strippers at a strip club.

Talking to Violet Blue, Twitter said its community on Vine is “different” and that making this change is a way to ensure the Vine users are “comfortable.” It’s a complete dismissal of the Vine demographic who made @PornoEnVine and #VeryShortFilmFest the things they once were.

“It’s not about who we want to be,” said a Twitter spokesperson. “It’s about who we are now.”

Is who they are now a step back for the freedom to self-express? We are disappoint.

Twitter is providing users with a means to download their content so that they can keep it after they remove it from Vine. These users are getting a one-week grace period from Twitter to remove their old content. Unlike other social networks who simply remove and/or suspend (like Facebook, Google+), content reporting will never trigger an automatic process on Vine. Users with offending content will be notified and given options to appeal to a review team composed of actual humans. This is the consolation, you guys. That’s how low we’ve set the bar.

If you care about this issue, Conner Habib has initiated a Change.org petition to ask Vine to stop censoring adult content.

Header image by Jason A. Howie.