Earlier this week Tumblr finally made an announcement that they will be banning adult content in the platform due to issues like child pornography that recently caused the app to be removed from App Store. According to the CEO Jeff D’Onofrio, the company is “no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions)” which means Tumblr will no longer permit NSFW content.
The ban is in accordance to Tumblr’s goal to be a safe place for its users to express themselves, and to feel the sense of belonging in a community, which is why Tumblr updated their Community Guidelines to ensure that the community and the company can move forward towards the right direction and prevent users from misusing the platform. The new policy begins on 17 December, and the company is using AI to help them identify adult content and filter them. Besides that, existing users with adult content will also be guided on how to proceed after the implementation of the policy so they will not have to worry that their accounts might be deleted as the accounts will just be set to private so that the content cannot be reblogged or shared.
As mentioned, there will be some exceptions that will be permitted such as content relevant to breastfeeding, childbirth or surgical operations that are gender-related. Written content and nudity that has news value or art value will also be allowed in Tumblr, so basically only adult content such as pornography and sex-related photos and videos are restricted.
The decision to ban adult content did receive many complaints which resulted in a petition at Change.org that has over a quarter of a million people signing to fight against Tumblr’s decision. The petition was started by an NSFW adult artist names S.S that believes the decision made by Tumblr will affect other people like him who rely on the site to earn their incomes and also restricts those who actually use the platform to view said content. Many believe that this is the beginning of the end for Tumblr, as it used to be a platform of freedom of expression which allowed many to express themselves in terms of their gender identities, and with the current change, it’ll just drive away the artists and the fans, which will cause a drastic change in the Tumblr community and decreasing its user base.
