The Puritanical Roots of AI Content Moderation – Why Big Tech’s NSFW Filters Are So Strict
When using AI tools from ‘the 3 digital gatekeepers of global morality’ for creativity, productivity, art, or education, you encounter a frustrating obstacle overly strict embedded so-called ‘NSFW filters’ that block even the most innocent depictions of (semi-)nudity including nude AI photography and nude AI art in any form.

The proprietary embedded standard NSFW prompt filtering system hard-coded in their AI models and AI platforms, while supposedly designed to ensure a “safe” global online environment, reflects deeper cultural norms rooted in America’s Puritanical history. Let’s explore how these values shape the AI content moderation of AI Big Tech and why this approach is problematic and even illegal in a global context.
The American Influence on AI Norms
Most major Big Tech companies including AI platforms, such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and Meta are headquartered and incorporated in the United States. While these companies operate globally, their policies mirror American cultural values, especially around morality, nudity, and sexuality. These values have deep historical roots:
- Puritanical Legacy: The United States has a longstanding moralistic attitude toward nudity, viewing it as taboo or inherently tied to sexuality. This perspective conflates artistic nudity with explicit content, leaving little room for nuance.
- Legal Considerations: U.S. laws, such as the Communications Decency Act and COPPA, impose strict regulations on online content, particularly anything that might be deemed obscene or harmful to minors. AI companies, fearing legal repercussions, overcompensate by filtering out anything remotely controversial.
- Make American Christian Again (MACA): Since a couple of years this movement is growing in size under the influence op people like reverend Doug Wilson and people like Pete Hegseth and Marjorie Taylor Green (“MTG”).
These factors shape how their Big Tech AI models & LLMS automatically screen, interpret and even regulate content, creating an overly conservative global framework for what is deemed “appropriate”, “adult content” and a wide range of other forms of “banned content” including banned art and banned photography.
The Role of Advertisers and Corporate Caution
AI US-based Big Tech companies rely heavily on advertising revenue. Advertisers demand “brand-safe” environments to avoid any association with controversial or what Americans might consider ‘explicit content’ or ‘adult content’l. This financial pressure pushes platforms to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to content moderation, where even non-pornographic nudity— like nude photography and different forms of fine art including nude art or anatomy lessons—gets swept up in the filtering net and is blocked.
Additionally, in an increasinlgy polarized society like the United States, leadership of Big Tech companies fear backlash from vocal conservative groups. By erring on the side of caution, they avoid public controversies but also stifle legitimate content creation of any kind. Including by artists and in education.
AI Models and the Lack of Nuance
Big Tech AI moderation systems are trained on datasets and ‘banned words lists’ including ‘NSFW banned words lists’ that reflect typical US-based cultural human biases. If these datasets and banned words lists label ‘nudity’ as “inappropriate,” ‘adult” or even ‘porn’, the AI systems and AI models concerned replicates these biases without considering cultural and legal context. This leads to:
- Conflation of Categories: Any form of nude photography, soft porn, and hard porn are often lumped together because their leadership and their designers and thus their AI systems lack the sophistication to differentiate between them, even if they would want to.
- Overgeneralization: Algorithms filter out anything flagged as remotely NSFW, even if the content serves an artistic, educational, or historical purpose. Or if it is for private use.
- Global Imposition of U.S. Standards: Big Tech AI systems embed these filters globally across all of their free and paid users and companies that use their APIs, disregarding cultural norms in regions like the EU (see the EU AI Act) and in many countries and jurisdictations including The Netherlands where many forms of nudity are viewed as natural or artistic rather than sexual or taboo and are legally allowed.
- Global Imposition Of Make America Christian Again (MACA): The tradtional Christian values and norms from people like Doug Wilson are embedded and hard coded in their ‘banned content’ mechanisms and in particular in their proprietary ‘NSFW Content’ blocking as part of their standard ‘banned words lists’.
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The Problem with Imposing American Values Globally
It is not the role of AI Big Tech companies to impose American cultural norms on their global user base. Such actions disregard the diversity of global values and traditions, creating friction and alienation among users. Moreover, this approach is illegal in many jurisdictions and regions, including the Netherlands and the European Union, where cultural and legal frameworks explicitly protect freedom of expression and artistic diversity.
- Cultural Arrogance: By enforcing U.S.-centric standards, Big Tech companies assume a position of giobal moral authority, marginalizing non-US perspectives.
- Loss of Cultural Identity: Nations with rich traditions of artistic or natural nudity or different national norms and values in general find their heritage undermined by these global blanket rules.
- Legal Violations: In regions like the EU and in many countries and jurisdictions like The Netherlands, such automated embedded impositions conflict with laws that safeguard cultural expression and prohibit unwarranted censorship including AI-censorship.
- Global Frustration: Users from other regions and countries than the U.S. feel that their cultural and legal norms are ignored in favor of stricter, Puritanical policies imposed by US-based Big Tech.
This imposition is not only inappropriate and in many cases illegal, but also counterproductive, as it limits the richness, creativity, productivity and diversity that companies wanting to be succesful globally should facilitate.

The Need for Big Tech To Take A Step Back
AI Big Tech’s banned content filters including Puritanical NSFW filters reveal a broader issue: the lack of context-aware content moderation. Here’s what’s needed to address these shortcomings:
- Cultural Sensitivity: Senior management of AI platforms must recognize and respect global diversity in attitudes toward nudity and sexuality.
- Improved AI Training: Moderation systems need to be trained on more nuanced datasets that can differentiate between art, education, and explicit content.
- Transparency and Accountability: Senior management of online platforms should clearly explain their moderation policies and allow revisions when content is unfairly and illegally flagged.
- Customer Control: Giving companies and any other type of organization the ability to set their own content preferences would empower organizations to define what is acceptable for them, rather than imposing an embedded one-size-fits-all US-standard.
- User Control: Giving users the ability to set their own content preferences would empower individuals to define what is acceptable for them, rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all US-standard.
Conclusion: Balancing Safety and Freedom
The strict NSFW filtering by AI Big Tech reflects a cultural legacy of Puritanical values that continues to shape Gen AI content moderation policies of the large companies creating the digital biblebelt. While these measures are supposed to be aimed at creating a “safe” global online environment, they overreach, stifling creativity and AI-productivity
But what is much more important: it is not the role of these Big Tech companies to impose such values and norms automatically on their global users and partners, particularly when doing so violates laws in many jurisdictions globally including the EU and the Netherlands.
To move forward, AI companies should allow customers to view and change the US-culturally biased rules, embedded ‘banned words list’ including the embedded ‘nsfw banned words list’ . In order to respect individual expression and cultural diversity. Only then can we achieve a free online world that fosters both safety and freedom of expression in line with regional and national norms and values.
By the way, strategically, it would be even smarter to go back to the past by developing and marketing neutral AI systems including disclaimers that users are always responsible with what they create as content with these tools.
Another option is to define and implement a smart digital blue ocean business strategy. avoiding the digital red ocean business strategy of the other large Big Tech Companies. As I have been doing and many other entrepreneurs online, thus also avoiding the online shakeout including in AI and the future of work due to the waves of the great AI layoff.

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