Twitter/X, Pornography & Age Verification: Exclusive Report on the Global Control Failure

Sudden Complete Blockade: User Reports and NETZ-TRENDS.de Investigations

Despite the law being in effect, several German users reported to NETZ-TRENDS.de that they only noticed practical effects starting the evening of July 26, 2025. One German adult content profile operator said all their pornographic and erotic posts have been blocked with a notice stating “no age verification present,” effectively cutting off access to their account and hundreds of thousands of similar profiles. Millions appear affected, as X seemingly provides no functional method for users to complete the legally mandated age verification.

An impacted user told NETZ-TRENDS.de: “I can’t find any verification button or link—nothing!”

International Scope: Criticism, Circumvention, and Frustration

This issue is not limited to Germany; similar reports originate from the UK, France, and other EU countries. International IT analyses highlight a lack of legally compliant, user-friendly age verification technologies. Until an EU-wide app is broadly deployed, accounts are caught in a legal gray zone — access to adult content is blocked without the means to verify age (footnotes 1, 2).

Meanwhile, users attempt to bypass restrictions using VPNs, fake selfies, or hacks, undermining the system’s reliability. Privacy advocates, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warn of surveillance risks linked to ID uploads and biometric checks, frequently criticized as discriminatory and vulnerable to misuse (footnote 2).

Diverging Standards: OnlyFans Leading, X Falling Behind

OnlyFans and similar platforms have established robust age and identity verification procedures. In contrast, X directs users into an impasse. For many adult content creators reliant on X for marketing subscriptions to OnlyFans, this halt is existential, freezing their business models overnight. Market studies indicate X has the highest percentage of adult content traffic among major social platforms, estimated between 12 and 25 percent of total usage (footnote 4).

Regulatory and User Concerns: Legal Mandates Meet Practical Failures

EU bodies, youth protection agencies, and privacy groups watch this disconnect with alarm. Platforms failing to protect minors face multi-million euro fines, yet technical and organizational implementation of age verification lags substantially (footnotes 3, 2). This leaves millions of users facing near-total, effectively insurmountable blocks on erotic and pornographic content on X, without timely solutions.

250,000 Porn Followers on X and €1,000 in Monthly Gross Revenue from OnlyFans with 2,000 Paying Subscribers

These figures are notable given that X (formerly Twitter) has a global user base of several hundred million active accounts.

An increasing number of erotic content creators now see the platform as a central tool for marketing and distribution, using it strategically to drive traffic toward paid subscription models on external services such as OnlyFans.

In an interview with NETZ-TRENDS.de, a German gay erotic creator reported that with approximately 250,000 followers on X, he currently generates around 2,000 paying subscribers per month on OnlyFans. These subscribers, he stated, contribute a total of about €1,000 per month (equivalent to approx. 1,159.04 US dollars) to access his exclusive content.

However, he emphasized that he is not a full-time adult performer, but rather one of many creators who pursue erotic content on the side. He holds an honors degree from a technical university in Germany and is now 55 years old. Despite his age, he remains highly in demand, due in part to distinctive physical features—a slim physique combined with what the industry refers to as an XXL endowment. Many of his videos regularly receive several hundred thousand to millions of views, underscoring his sustained relevance and digital reach.

At the same time, he cautions against overreliance on X as a platform:
“Several of my porn friends had their accounts permanently suspended overnight—sometimes for the smallest violations of X’s rules concerning adult or explicit content.”

Losing an account with 100,000 followers or more, he said, can be economically devastating, since such reach often represents the core of a creator’s business model.

He also noted a downward trend: despite gaining more followers on X in recent months, he achieved higher subscriber numbers in the past with a smaller audience—at times generating up to €1,700 per month via OnlyFans.

According to German tax law, these earnings are fully taxable. Given his primary profession as an academic, he is subject to a top marginal income tax rate of up to 45%.

His business model relies on regularly sharing free content on X to funnel interested users toward paid erotic videos and digital services offered on external platforms.

NETZ-TRENDS.de Exclusive Summary

“The EU enacts laws without practical technical enforcement methods, X surrenders to implementation challenges, and millions suffer sudden, complete content lockdowns. Digital rule-of-law systems are evolving, but control and user engagement are far from reliable,” summarizes the NETZ-TRENDS.de editorial team.

Importantly, data protection must apply in erotic and pornographic contexts; no linking of user profiles to real identities can be allowed, as breaches could expose millions publicly and cause devastating blackmail. Youth protection should not come at the expense of privacy. The internet must preserve anonymity, protecting users from total state surveillance of their most private behaviors. The state must stay out of individuals’ intimate preferences regarding erotic and pornographic content.