The NY Post is reporting that Twitter could face billions in fines over not protecting minors from porn.

Twitter has reportedly failed to adequately police underage pornography across its social network — a mess posing the risk of a federal investigation that could cost the company billions of dollars in fines, The Post has learned.

The embattled social media site — which is in the middle of a court battle with Elon Musk to enforce an agreement to sell him the company for $44 billion — may have broken a so-called consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission when the company reportedly found in an internal study this year that it doesn’t adequately stop underage users from viewing and uploading porn, two former FTC officials told The Post.

Specifically, Twitter executives reportedly found in an internal study that the company lacked adequate controls to prevent underage users from accessing and uploading pornography, according to an Aug. 30 story in the Verge, which cited an internal Twitter team’s findings. Unlike other major social media companies, Twitter allows porn on its site.

The internal researchers reportedly said the site also could not consistently detect banned content such as child porn, revenge porn, and non-consensual “upskirt” photos once it’s uploaded to the site.

“Twitter cannot accurately detect child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity at scale,” the researchers wrote in April, according to the Verge.

While regulators haven’t publicly reacted to the report thus far, Twitter’s failures could run afoul of its commitments under a consent decree signed in 2011, which requires that Twitter “shall not misrepresent” the extent to which it protects the security and privacy of users, former FTC officials said. According to the officials, the alleged problems with porn moderation could qualify as undisclosed user privacy and security problems.

Spokespeople for Twitter and Musk declined to comment. The FTC did not respond to a request for comment.

In response to the Verge story, Twitter said that it has “zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation.”

“We aggressively fight online child sexual abuse and have invested significantly in technology and tools to enforce our policy,” the company added. “Our dedicated teams work to stay ahead of bad-faith actors and to help ensure we’re protecting minors from harm — both on and offline.”

In an exclusive interview with The Post, former FTC Chairman William Kovacic called for the FTC, which he noted has a mission to protect consumers, to immediately investigate the allegations. He said Twitter could be hit with a fine in the range of $5 billion if it is found to have violated the consent decree by failing to protect underage users.

“There should be no hesitation,” Kovacic said of a potential FTC investigation.

Kovacic was one of five FTC commissioners who inked the 2011 consent decree — which followed a pair of major hacks that the FTC blamed on “serious lapses in the company’s data security” — requiring Twitter not to mislead consumers about safety and privacy. It remains in effect until 2031.

Another former FTC official, who asked not to be named, also told The Post that Twitter’s alleged underage porn problem should immediately be probed by the agency, which is currently led by anti-Big Tech hardliner Lina Khan.

Underage users’ access to porn had been a priority for the FTC when it drafted the 2011 consent decree, but it appears the company hasn’t done enough to live up to its commitments, the ex-FTC official said.

If Twitter can’t “control” which users view or upload porn, the ex-FTC official added, “then it’s reasonable to conclude that they would be in violation of the 2011 prohibition not to misrepresent security and privacy of users.”

Kovacic said the FTC fines a company based partly on how long it hasn’t complied with a consent decree. If the agency determines that Twitter has been out of compliance for more than ten years, he said the fine could be in the $5 billion range — roughly equal to Twitter’s entire 2021 revenue.

Twitter found the alleged problems with age verification while it considered a plan this spring to boost revenue by launching an OnlyFans-style feature that would allow Twitter users to sell dirty photos and videos, the Verge reported.

Twitter reportedly assigned a team of 84 employees to pressure-test the idea. The team allegedly found that Twitter already lacks the ability to consistently stop underage users from viewing or uploading porn — and that the problem would be made worse by letting users charge for porn.

After the researchers presented their findings, the company reportedly shelved the project as it focused on the messy takeover battle with Musk.

Now, a source close to the court battle said Musk’s legal team is expected to try to seize on a potential FTC probe and fine as part of his effort to terminate his $44 billion takeover deal.