The Government’s Initiative Against Grok and xAI Has Commenced

How does one determine what qualifies as content—or whether something is deemed pornographic?

“It’s primarily a matter of counting in terms of ‘does the law apply’,” Alan Butler, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, previously stated to WIRED.

Kupper, the proponent of Arizona’s age verification law, conveyed to WIRED that he adhered to the one-third benchmark because it has been previously affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. He mentioned hearing estimates that 15 to 25 percent of accounts on X contain at least some pornographic content, but he expresses uncertainty about its accuracy and questions the practicality of assessing such ratios across every website. X has yet to respond to inquiries about its own definition of pornographic content on the platform.

“I believe there shouldn’t be a threshold. It should be a matter of: Do you have pornographic material on your site? If so, you should implement age verification for that content. I’m not suggesting that your entire site needs to be age-verified, but any pornographic material should require it,” Kupper states. Posts labeled as “age-restricted adult content” on X can only be accessed by users who are logged in and over 18; X generally expects users uploading such content to self-label it as explicit. WIRED could not find similar restrictions for pornographic links on the Grok platform.

In Arizona, Kupper explains that individuals would need to file a complaint—for instance, if their child encountered harmful pornographic material on X—and the court would require X to demonstrate that less than one-third of its content falls into that category.

Nebraska state senator Dave Murman, who led age verification initiatives there, informed WIRED that he is uncertain about Grok’s independent standing, yet asserts that “X does not contain at least one-third of its content that is sexually inappropriate or harmful to minors.” When asked if the state had conducted any measurements, he admitted that it hadn’t and is not aware of any state that has.

“While I would certainly prefer a system where every single instance of pornographic content is secured behind an age gate, creating legislation to achieve that without infringing on the valid free-speech rights of social media platforms seems logistically unfeasible,” he remarks. “I’m not sure if there’s a legislative fix to eliminate pornography from social media sites like X, but I do hope the company takes proactive steps.”

Pornhub, one of the largest adult sites globally, has restricted access from multiple states due to age verification laws, claiming that there are too many noncompliant websites and that users are reluctant to provide personal identification for age verification through third-party sites. Additionally, it plans to restrict access for new users in the UK next week because of that country’s age verification regulations, which went into effect last July.

On Tuesday, Solomon Friedman, vice president of compliance for the private equity firm Ethical Partners Capital (ECP), which owns Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, communicated to WIRED that the methodology and scope of age verification legislation suffer from fatal flaws.

He pointed out that Google Images, for instance, retains “thumbnails of every single porn image cached available online.” Friedman and Pornhub are advocating for Google, Apple, and Microsoft to adopt device-based age verification to keep users’ data stored within their devices.

“That also offers a solution for adult content on so-called ‘non-porn’ platforms and sites. It can help filter explicit tweets or posts on X, or the explicit use of AI chatbots.”

WIRED has contacted Google, Microsoft, and Apple regarding their openness to device-based age verification but has not yet received a response.