X bot purge wipes out secret porn feeds, users say

What happened

It has been reported that X began an escalated crackdown on automated accounts in early April, flagging and suspending large numbers of bots — product head Nikita Bier allegedly said the system was flagging “208 bots per minute.” The sweep, intended to remove fake, inactive and spammy accounts, has also ensnared thousands of human-run alternate accounts that people used for years to privately follow and bookmark niche porn, adult creators and OnlyFans feeds. X did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and it has been reported that the company has previously removed millions of bots in past sweeps.

Who’s affected

The fallout is personal. Influencers and ordinary users alike say their burner or “alt” accounts were suspended with no violation, wiping out long-curated libraries of likes, bookmarks and threads. “Not a single rule was violated…years of curation and accumulation gone in a flash,” one user wrote — another compared it to the “burning of the Library of Alexandria.” Where does content moderation end and the erosion of private, niche communities begin? For many, a private feed was simply a place to engage with shame‑sensitive material away from their public personas. That human nuance apparently didn’t save them.

Why it matters

Automated enforcement scales; nuance does not. It has been reported that X shifted much of its product focus toward spam mitigation and bot detection last year, and critics say an overreliance on AI and heuristic rules will keep catching legitimate users. The broader debate is familiar: platforms trying to be safe and sane at scale while not trampling on privacy or legitimate, if awkward, forms of expression. Users are petitioning for reinstatements and changes — a reminder that technical fixes have social costs, and sometimes the thing lost is less about data than dignity.

Sources: wired.com