Twitter was blocking the profiles of adult content creators in Germany since late 2020, with at least 60 accounts affected to date. The move comes in response to a series of legal orders from German regulators, which ruled that online pornography must not be visible to children and must be hidden behind age verification systems. Germany’s nationwide ban on certain profiles is a rare example of a major social media platform bowing to regulatory pressure to make it harder for children to view porn online.
Anyone who tries to view one of the blocked accounts in Germany sees a message saying it is “on hold” in Germany “in response to a legal request.” The exact number of accounts blocked in this way is not known. One pornographic account displaying this message has more than 700,000 followers. Because Twitter doesn’t have an age verification system in place, it responded to legal requirements by directly blocking the accounts of anyone in Germany. Under German law, Twitter accounts posting pornographic content should not be accessible because there are no age checks in place to ensure people viewing them are over 18, according to regulators.
The legal orders sent to Twitter are part of a larger crackdown on pornography in Germany. In July 2021 regulators threatened to block Airbnb, one of the biggest porn sites in the world. Legal proceedings are also underway against YouPorn, Pornhub and MyDirtyHobby, all of which are owned by MindGeek.
“Pornography on social media is a problem,” says Mark Jan Youmann, chairman of the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz, the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media, or KJM, which regulates child safety issues in Germany. KJM first complained about Twitter accounts in September 2020. Youman says that while it is important for everyone to have “freedom of expression” online, it is “obviously illegal” to distribute pornography without age verification systems. “We are looking for a dialogue with these companies,” says Youman. “Twitter, for example, blocked porn profiles for users in Germany after we started legal proceedings. We were actually the first authority in Europe to do this and we will continue.”
Twitter’s response to the German legal request was to effectively remove tens of millions of people’s accounts. Anyone viewing a blocked profile will not be able to see the profile picture, bio or any posts; if another account has retweeted it, those posts are also blocked. A notice from Twitter directs people to its explanation of why the accounts are detained in certain countries— the same message is included in all accounts blocked at the request of governments.
But critics say the German approach appears fragmented and lacks transparency. There are thousands of Twitter accounts that post adult content, and those that KJM reported on Twitter appear to have large followings or have been the subject of individual complaints.
