Tumblr Completely Bans Adult Content

One of the few social media pioneers who has so far remained loyal to adult content is giving up. Starting 17 December, all pornographic content on Tumblr will be removed and banned.

Social media has become a socio-political garbage dump, the capitulation of the intellect to the rule of trolling rage. Every day, tons of hatred is spread via major platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The feel-good websites Instagram and Pinterest are engaged in narcissistic navel-gazing of their users.

Twitter and Tumblr were the only remaining beacons for quite some time. They offered a service that seemed dedicated to free speech, information, discourse and artistic exchange of any kind. Especially Twitter had the nimbus of liberal freedom fights, as a platform free of censorship. Last but not least, Twitter, alongside the whistle-blower platform Wikileaks, was considered to have played a major role in the Arab Spring movements.

Twitter’s counterpart when it came to pictures was Tumblr. For a long time now, both services have been the largest social media providers, not only tolerating adult and pornographic content but also clearly owe part of their growth to the XXX community.

Ongoing attack on the sexual expression on the Internet

After the introduction of age restrictions, registration requirements and shadow bans, there is now a total ban – at least with Tumblr, XXX content will no longer be allowed on the platform starting 17 December. It is a first step towards censorship, the end of a utopia, the Web 2.0 has lost its anarchic, revolutionary character long ago anyway, but with Tumblr a flickering afterglow of a freer internet waves goodbye. There is not much left of the former anarchy and freedom on the Net. Only Twitter is the last mainstream giant to allow adult content.

According to Tumbler’s updated terms of use, adult content includes GIFs that show human genitals or female nipples and any content – including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations that show sexual acts of any kind. It couldn’t be clearer. Any erotic content that shows skin is now forbidden on Tumblr.

Tumblr’s Demise

From 17 December, a specially created algorithm will search for content that violates the new guidelines and recommend that it be deleted. Affected users will then be notified. Allegedly, there is a possibility to object to the algorithm’s proposal. It is unclear how this is supposed to help XXX providers who have invested many years in the development of their communities.

Tumblr has openly allowed adult content since its foundation in 2007. The present reversal creates again uncertainty and losses for actors, performers, studios and sex workers, who are often threatened anyway in their existence by the increasing efforts worldwide to introduce legislation that would allow for censorship efforts against expressions of sexual freedom.

The industry reacted quickly and abruptly to Tumblr’s new policies. Some can’t resist pointing out that the portal owes its existence largely to the XXX content on it. In any case, in comparison to other portals, the site’s offer has long since become obsolete.

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