Twitter is listening, not necessarily to features that users want or ask for, but still, it is now listening. As of this week, the social media platform rolled out its newest feature for its iOS users: voice tweets. Not everyone will be able to use it yet though, as it’s the standard staggered global rollout.
Those who can upload their voice tweets are able to record 140 seconds of audio, and continue to auto-create a thread of up to 25 voice tweets. Meaning there is much more room for sharing “perspectives quickly and easily”, designed to combat miscommunication (read, abuse) on the platform and to humanize users to each other.
Twitter writes that “at this time, you can only record voice Tweets as original Tweets. It’s not possible to Tweet with audio through replies or Retweets with Comment.”
While there are potential positive implications for adult content creators that use the platform, there are equally significant concerns around censorship, accessibility, abuse, and privacy.
Audio porn in the timeline
It’s not difficult to imagine the sexual potential for voice tweets, as we’ve already seen Lil Nas X maturely experiment with the feature.
For adult content creators like Girl on the Net who regularly make audio porn, “the voice tweet feature will be a great way to give people a taste of the content they can enjoy on the full-on site”.
Nevertheless, as we previously feared, one of the biggest concerns is how voice tweets used for adult content will inevitably be censored. Being one of the few social media platforms that tolerate sex workers, most adult content creators still face unfair regulations.
One the one hand, it’s much harder to censor and shadowban adult creators for posting erotic voice tweets.
“There isn’t the same kind of filtering technology available as there is for text-based tweets, so that’s a plus,” says Girl on the Net. On the other hand, “it may mean that Twitter becomes more heavy-handed in its overall policies on adult content purely because it’s harder to police content like this, and use it as the basis for censorship.”
Even Tumblr, the site that said it was censoring all NSFW content in December 2018, still has audio porn pages such as the wonderful Sounds of Pleasure.
Accessibility problems
“We can’t wait to see how people will use this to make their voices heard and add to the public conversation.”
Twitter
As democratizing as social media makes itself out to be, we all know that the internet, and large digital social networking sites are generally not built with positivity, inclusivity and accessibility in mind.
Little thought seemed to have gone into this particular update, as voice tweets don’t allow captions, frustratingly leaving deaf and hearing impaired people out of the “public conversation” for the time being.
While audio porn is notably a bonus for blind and vision impaired, Girl on the Net shares that she always links through to a text version of any porn to make her content accessible.
“While it’s early in the test, we’re still exploring the best ways to serve different needs and abilities before rolling out to everyone,” a Twitter spokesperson told us.
A troll’s delight?
Known for the rampant hate (typically in the form of racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic comments) that is regularly found on the platform, Twitter told SEXTECHGUIDE that “we’ll review any reported voice tweets in line with our rules, and take action, including labeling, as needed.”
Then there’s the potentially more conspiracy-sounding concerns around why Twitter is introducing the feature.
Other Twitter user fear “[Twitter is] recording these samples of your voice to build a voice recognition database”.
Twitter didn’t respond to our questions around how voice recording data will be protected specifically.
With most new technological developments, there’s a balance to be struck between functionality and protection of personal privacy. While some users will welcome the possibilities offered by Twitter’s voice recording feature in the adult domain, there are other more appropriate, dedicated platforms for it. And if you’re intent on sharing (or listening to) audio porn on a major social network, Reddit is generally more audio porn-friendly, with subreddits like Gone Wild Audio Trans providing regular updates.
Read Next: Aural sex: Is audio porn the next big thing in adult content, or destined for censorship?
Leave a Reply