Apple axed Tumblr from App Store because of failed child pornography filters

Tumblr's sudden disappearance from the iOS App Store on Friday — still unresolved — was because material slipped through the blogging network's child pornography filters, according to the company.

"Every image uploaded to Tumblr is scanned against an industry database of known child sexual abuse material, and images that are detected never reach the platform," it said in a support update. "A routine audit discovered content on our platform that had not yet been included in the industry database. We immediately removed this content."

Work continues on returning Tumblr to the App Store, the company said, without saying what changes are being made or an expected timeframe. For reasons unknown the app remains available on Google Play for Android devices.

Apple has adopted a zero-tolerance policy, choosing to pull any app with accessible child pornography even when it may be hard to find and developers are continuously trying to root it out. Another example is in February, when the popular messaging app Telegram was pulled. Apple worked with Telegram to get the illegal content taken down, ban the offending users, and institute controls.

That process took about a day however, raising questions about the obstacles Tumblr is encountering.

21 Comments

dblanch369 16 Years · 47 comments

About 6 years ago

well, they should definitely pull the google app then. and safari. oh, and Firefox and definitely Edge. If you're gonna take it upon yourself to "police" the app store, then be consistent all around.

Madtiger 7 Years · 237 comments

dblanch369 said:

well, they should definitely pull the google app then. and safari. oh, and Firefox and definitely Edge. If you're gonna take it upon yourself to "police" the app store, then be consistent all around.

So, you are against Apple doing this to this app? So, you support Google because Google left the app in the Play Store?

As for those browser...the user has to SEARCH or enter in address of porn.

Tumblr is different.

anton zuykov 9 Years · 1056 comments

dblanch369 said:

well, they should definitely pull the google app then. and safari. oh, and Firefox and definitely Edge. If you're gonna take it upon yourself to "police" the app store, then be consistent all around.

Nah, they won't. They have to parallel sets of rules that get applied depending on whose app it is. Apple never claimed they would be fair in what rules they are gonna enforce and when. I wonder, if it is going to scare away a good portion of the developers, as it is becoming too much of a risk to be developing for iKing.

rogifan_new 9 Years · 4297 comments

dblanch369 said:

well, they should definitely pull the google app then. and safari. oh, and Firefox and definitely Edge. If you're gonna take it upon yourself to "police" the app store, then be consistent all around.

I figured the moronic comments would come. Safari is a web browser. It doesn’t host any content. Using your logic we should ban the iPhone because someone could use it to take pictures of child porn. Stupid.

darkpaw 15 Years · 212 comments

"...it is becoming too much of a risk to be developing for iKing."
Nah, mate. Any developer creating a platform that can share photos is well aware of the risks. Tumblr is well aware, and they put all images through a filter.

The risk to Apple of allowing your unfiltered app to serve up child porn is greater as they would be seen to not be interested (much like Google in this case).

Apple did the right thing here. Tumblr did the right thing here.