Less than a week after leading pornography providers closed down their access to Frenchmen to protest the country’s age verification requirements for platforms providing ‘adult’ content, the French government is seizing the moment and expanding its crackdown in an attempt to cage Elon Musk’s blue bird.
France is now looking closely at defining X as a pornography platform, on par with Pornhub and YouPorn. Since Musk’s purchase of Twitter and rebranding it as X, his commitment to free speech, “accepts the distribution of pornographic content. It must therefore be treated as such,” the French digital ministry’s office told Politico.
Digital minister Clara Chappaz said on TV show “Quotidien” last week that X would be getting “the same pretty papers as YouPorn,” ordering them to either ban pornography or create an age verification system to prevent underage internet users from accessing the unsavory material.
According to a 2024 report by VPN review website Top10VPN, X was the most frequently restricted platform worldwide in 2023, experiencing restrictions 18% higher than those on Instagram and 26% higher than TikTok.
Belgium’s Audiovisual Regulator CSA said last year that the amount of pornographic material on X had multiplied after Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform, and recorded close to 5,000 accounts they saw as problematic, with just under 100 being “clearly pornographic.”
Last week, Tanzania shut down access to X with the motivation that it allowed pornographic content contrary to the country’s “laws, culture, customs, and traditions,” Minister for Information Jerry Silaa told the BBC. The timing of the platform’s complete blockage has raised concerns among civil society groups and international observers, who view it as a troubling sign of democratic backsliding in the lead-up to planned October elections.
After rising political tensions, authorities have reportedly intensified crackdowns on opposition activities.The East African country had already restricted access to X earlier, citing a need for heightened security measures. In April, the country’s main opposition party was disqualified from participating in elections for the next five years and its leader was arrested, accused of treason after he called for electoral reforms.
There was a time when suspicions of this kind of political skullduggery would have been unthinkable in a Western European country. But in today’s Europe, where the ruling elites increasingly seem focused on clinging to power by any means—including suppressing free speech and weaponizing the legal system against their opponents—it can no longer be assumed that a French minister’s justification for restricting the flow of information is any more sincere or free of political calculation than that of an East African counterpart.