Sorry, VR porn enthusiasts: Oculus Rift won't embrace X-rated content after all

When Variety reported earlier today that Palmer Luckey, founder of the virtual reality glasses Oculus Rift, had announced that his company planned to embrace VR porn, it was a surprise.

Oculus, after all, is owned by Facebook, which acquired the start-up for $2 billion last year. Facebook has historically been horrified by nudity on its platform, going so far as to block photos of mothers breastfeeding their infants. It seemed unlikely that Facebook would let its VR business distribute realistic, immersive porn, despite the report. (“Oculus had no plans to block virtual reality porn” Variety reported, based on this statement by Luckey during a virtual reality conference this week: “The Rift is an open platform. We don’t control what software can run on it. And that’s a big deal.”)

But don’t get too excited. When I launched an inquiry over to Facebook, they shot down hopes of VR porn. “Oculus curates the content which will be distributed through the Oculus Store,” a spokesperson told me in an email. “Oculus only distributes developer content that meets their terms of service which forbid pornographic content from being a part of the Oculus Store.”

So it appears Rifters won’t be able to download “Debbie Does 3-D Dallas” from the company’s official store — the Oculus equivalent of Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store. But Oculus is an open platform, so Rifters could still theoretically obtain pornographic content and put it on their devices in a different way. Unless, that is, Facebook decides to crack down even harder.