Trill Take — Tumblr Take-Down
At the end of 2018, Tumblr made an announcement to ban adult content on its platform, including “explicit sexual content and nudity.” This policy was no surprise to many, especially as it followed an issue with child pornography on the site. However, since its implementation with faulty algorithms (and the abundance of misflagged posts), Tumblr has faced a major lash back on this censorship, especially as it applies to marginalized communities.
On the blog post announcement, Tumblr’s CEO Jeff D’Onofrio states that their reasoning behind this change was to keep Tumblr “a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community.” Despite this nicely phrased explanation, Tumblr users have found this policy’s effect quite the contrary.
“It’s unclear what the long-term outlook on Tumblr is going to be after the ban, but I’ve seen enough content creators who have left after their blogs were flagged, and friends and mutuals who left in lockstep, to feel profound sadness when I consider the Tumblr that was. A real sense of belonging, safety, and shared creativity in the areas where I lurked is lost. It’s the end of an era.” — Kaila Hale Stern (on The Mary Sue)
Especially for those who are marginalized, Tumblr was a rare gem in the vast online world, a place of expression and self-discovery. But with its policy change, its negative effect has just begun to take hold, shown by numerous users uprooting even after years of being active.
But most prominently, perhaps the most immediately hard-hit by the policy on the platform have been content creators. With algorithms mistakenly flagging and taking down art, these creators have seen much of their hard work being flushed down the drain.
“Let’s hope that as it learns how to tell smut from healthy, wholesome, safe, supportive content and artistic expression, it will learn to listen to the content creators and community builders it’s now in the process of exiling.” — Lisa Vaas (on Naked Security)
Strong voices on this topic:
