Social Media Users Freak Out After Realizing Fan-Fiction Sites Could Be Included in Project 2025 Anti-Porn Ban

Hundreds of social media users were sent into a panic after learning that Project 2025 could lead to pornography being banned, which they determined also meant their beloved fan-fiction sites.

The frenzy began Thursday after one user tweeted, "JUST REALIZED THAT PROJECT 2025 WANTS TO GET RID OF AO3." AO3 refers to Archive of Our Own, which is a popular site where users can both read and write fan-fiction.

The post quickly went viral, sending hundreds of other users into a spiral.

"OH I'M GONNA GET SICK," one user commented. Another wrote, "It's so over."

"AO3 has long been a place where people can share their creativity without the barriers that more mainstream platforms can impose. If these changes are moved forward, it could have a real impact on fan communities and creative freedom," one user tweeted.

Social media users believe that fan-fiction sites such as AO3 could be banned as the introduction of Project 2025 mentions the possibility of banning pornography, and states that "firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered," as reported by The Nation.

"Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection," the introduction of the conservative manifesto created by the Heritage Foundation reads.

While not all fan-fictions qualify as pornographic, many users were worried about how popular the portrayal of LGBTQ+ relationships is on the platform. Dozens shared that upon learning the news, they downloaded all of their favorite reads.

However, others expressed that if Project 2025 does lead to a ban or restrictions on pornography, they thought visual media would be the bigger target.

"Obscene" art and pornography was ruled to be legal within reason by the Supreme Court in 1972. However, some are worried that with the current conservative-leaning bench, this ruling could be reviewed.