About

The Twitter Content Warning is a censoring feature on Twitter that allows users to flag NSFW photos and videos with a "Sensitive Content Warning" labeled as either "Violence," "Nudity" or "Sensitive." This makes the photo or video appear blurry on a user's timeline until they manually choose to see it. After the feature's introduction, Twitter users quickly started flagging random pieces of media as "sensitive," blurring non-NSFW content ironically as a bait-and-switch tactic. The feature was tested as early as December 2021 but was used in abundance in early 2022.

Origin

On December 7th, 2021, the official Twitter^[1] account of Twitter Safety posted a tweet that detailed a new "Content Warning" feature being tested. It included a GIF on how to use the content feature. A user can hit an "Edit" button at the bottom right of their photo or video. From there, they can hit the "Flag" symbol, giving them the option to mark the content as either "Violence," "Nudity" or "Sensitive." The tweet detailed that this was for users who wanted warnings, referencing the concept of trigger warnings. The tweet (shown below) received over 900 likes in one month.

People use Twitter to discuss what’s happening in the world, which sometimes means sharing unsettling or sensitive content. We’re testing an option for some of you to add one-time warnings to photos and videos you Tweet out, to help those who might want the warning. pic.twitter.com/LCUA5QCoOV

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) December 7, 2021

Twitter users didn't notice the feature en masse until late January 2022. Twitter^[2] user valledamoth was the first on the platform to notice, posting a tweet on January 24th that said, "While meddling with filters, I found that there are 'flags' or content warning… when you choose em they blur out the image :0." The tweet (shown below) received over 30 likes in three days.

Spread

On January 25th, 2022, users started posting Twitter content warnings in large amounts, using it for memes. For instance, the first to do so was Twitter^[3] user RukoTheWonder, who blurred an image of a Nintendo 3DS, earning six likes over two days (shown below, top). A couple more Twitter users posted similar tweets going into the evening, however, the first verified Twitter user to hop onto the trend was Kaleb Prime^[4] who posted a tweet on the morning of January 26th that received roughly 1,200 likes in one day (shown below, bottom).

As the average Twitter user's timeline started to flood with blurred media, users started posting memes about the saturation. For instance, on January 26th, Twitter^[5] user Gozutrucker69 tweeted a screenshot, captioning it, "funny jokes aside this warning is fucking useless lol it barely hides the content," earning over 60 likes in one day (shown below). Behind the blurring of the image is an obvious photo of a crewmate from Among Us.

Twitter^[6] user notPotatoe_ also tweeted on January 26th, 2022, making a joke about how they'd come to expect the images to not be NSFW so that when they were exposed to an actual NSFW post, it was shocking and funny. The tweet (shown below) received roughly 4,900 likes in less than 24 hours.

Twitter users became increasingly nuanced with what media they were flagging going into the rest of January. For instance, on the 26th, Twitter^[7] user @_blaccsheep censored a King of the Hill clip that referenced the word "nudity," earning roughly 5,300 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/BItDOcNXmp

— 🐏Miserable, Non-Binary Candy🐏 (@_blaccsheep) January 26, 2022

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References