Mikey Campbell
Photo-centric blogging platform Tumblr returned to the iOS App Store this week after its app was pulled last month following the discovery that the service was hosting child pornography.
According to release notes supplied with the newly reinstated Tumblr app, the latest version "includes changes to Tumblr's Community Guidelines, which prohibit certain kinds of content from being shown on Tumblr." While not specified, Tumblr is likely referring to explicit photos, content that will soon be banned from the service under newly adopted user guidelines.
Tumblr's app was yanked from the iOS App Store in late November following the discovery of illicit content that supposedly slipped through the service's child pornography filters.
In response to criticisms over lax policing, Tumblr earlier this month announced a set of rules that prohibit "adult content" from the service. As defined by the company, adult content includes "photos, videos or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content — including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations — that depicts sex acts."
Nudity, specifically content falling under the "female-presenting nipples" descriptor, is still allowed under narrowly defined circumstances including breastfeeding and health-related situations.
The changes are due to take effect on Dec. 17, at which time content that runs afoul of the new rules will be marked as viewable only by its uploader. Users will be able to report questionable content via a new reporting system, while blog owners who feel their posts were inappropriately flagged as "adult" can file an appeal.
Tumblr's new policy is viewed by some as heavy-handed. Of note, the updated terms will no doubt be detrimental to artists, sex workers and other professionals who fostered followings — and businesses — on the platform through so-called "explicit" blogs. Come next week, such pages will have to conform to the new policy or face removal.
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7 Comments
Claiming that female nipples are lewd but male nipples are not, is akin to making women wear burkas on the premise that men can’t be responsible for their own temptations if they see female flesh. It’s absurd.
Does anyone care that the app is back? Turning the site to Disney friendly is going to kill it anyway.
Can't honestly say I'll miss it, but it won't be long before something else pops up to replace it.
I "curated" a niche-porn Tumblr blog which means I clicked "like" on the pics I liked and "shared" the ones I really liked. I got 1,000 followers. I tried briefly to monetize it with an affiliate link, but hundreds of referral clicks never translated into any payouts. My Tumblr blog was just one of probably hundreds of thousands of others. Everyone I know who used Tumblr has used it for these fantastic curated porn feeds.
I am not sure who Tumblr thinks they are, they WERE a porn purveyor. Verizon, the new owner, is implementing a really draconian / chilling policy. There is NO reason why they could not have built in additional safeguards to keep underage porn off of Tumblr, for example. They never put the time or effort into curating their user feeds, and now in a tantrum have decided to banish all nudity. This accomplishes exactly nothing but kill their platform, and drive users to the next platform.
The cat is out of the bag, people will find their porn elsewhere. I enjoyed the Tumblr feed format because it wasn't infested with all the virus-laden pop-up ads out there in the wild on other porn sites.
My last point is this: Apple shouldn't be the moral arbiter of what appears on its product. This is the beginning of a very concerning trend whereby the government and private industry watches and monitors what we view. In China they're giving you social scores now that will restrict your options in life based on such factors. Today its naked people they want to banish, tomorrow it might as well be democratic activists or whoever our near-fascist leadership has decided to go after.
The Tumblr porn ban is a free-market failure, and an ominous portent of things to come. Once they start controlling what we can see, the next thing they'll come after is what we think.