Tumblr recently banned content with sexy pictures and videos. The company is concerned about liability and potential customers and decided to restrict sex content on its site.
In addition to the potential liability, a ban on sex content will discourage potential customers. In addition, companies often use over-inclusive filtering tools. Luckily, the website also flagged content that is okay for a general audience.
NSFW community on Tumblr
Tumblr, the social networking site, was the perfect setting for a NSFW community. Its chaotic nature was ideal for the growth of these communities. Members of this site could post whatever they wanted, with virtually no offline consequences. Besides being a safe haven for such content, it also had a large community for every interest imaginable. With so many different blogs, it was easy to find a community for almost anything.
In addition to being free of strong censorship, Tumblr offered a safe space for NSFW content. Many users were free to express their kinks in their posts and connect with other NSFW users. While sex is not normally talked about in public environments, the presence of a community for such content on Tumblr gave marginalized users a place to feel comfortable.
Tumblr ban on nudity
Tumblr recently updated its policies to allow only certain types of nudity on the platform. These include female-presenting nipples that are revealed during breastfeeding, post-mastectomy nipples, and nudity related to political protest. It has been reported that the decision to ban nudity was a mistake on the part of Vintrove, who re-posted the photo with a Tumblr notification.
The new policy does not only ban nudity on sex-oriented Tumblrs but also on kinky and geeky Tumblrs. But a ban on nudity on these blogs may be more problematic than a few nudity-related t-shirts. Regardless of the cause behind the censorship policy, it has already damaged the reputation of sex-oriented subcultures on the platform.
Many core Tumblr users may be grumbling about the ban, but they recognize there are many other sites with similar content and don’t want to leave the platform for fear of being banned. Others see this as echoing the decline of LiveJournal, the early blogging site that attracted sex workers. However, it is unclear how widespread the ban will be.
Tumblr’s crackdown on porn
Last month, Tumblr was delisted from the Apple App Store for having ineffective child pornography filtering. Now, the platform has announced a blanket ban on sexual and nudity content, starting December 17 – International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. However, it’s not all bad news. Some people are disappointed by the crackdown, while others are cheering the move.
The decision of Tumblr to ban porn is a significant blow to the adult content community. The site had become a haven for female-centric and non-normative content. It was the last place to find this content online. In addition, accounts were carefully curated for years, providing a common ground for individuals with diverse interests. The move to ban pornography is likely to exacerbate harassment and polarization among users.
Despite a string of warnings from users and activists, Tumblr’s crackdown has been effective so far. The social networking site has removed more than 300,000 porn sites from its platform. Many users have complained about the removal of blogs they loved. Tumblr has apologised to users for the decision, which came after an extensive investigation into the site’s content filtering.
Impact on core users
It is not surprising that Tumblr is feared by some sex workers, who have lost their advertising venue due to the new algorithm. The new algorithm flags non-pornographic content for review. While it is funny to watch the content being flagged, many of the content creators are not human and the pornography is largely authored by porn bots. This has a number of negative consequences.
The new adult content ban on Tumblr comes after the company was purchased by Verizon last year. The corporate side of the website has increasingly come into conflict with its users as it attempts to balance the potential money-making opportunities of the site with its unruly culture. In order to deal with the censorship backlash, Tumblr has introduced a new policy explicitly protecting text-based erotica and nudity-related artwork. However, this policy raises a conundrum for the company: who should be allowed to post adult-themed content?
