A better, more positive Tumblr
Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, weāre proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.
Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, weāve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. Weāve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, weāre taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions). Ā
Letās first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with todayās policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. Weāve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.
So what is changing?
Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and weāve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.
Why are we doing this?
It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.
Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.
So whatās next?
Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes wonāt happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.
Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. Weāre relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but weāve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.
Most importantly, weāre going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions weāre making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.
Like you, we love Tumblr and what itās come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We wonāt always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.
Jeff DāOnofrio CEO
āWeāre going to make sure y'all canāt post naked pictures of consenting adults. The Nazi bullshit and bot infestation will continue as normal, and likely worsen as people leave the site in droves to places where an artistic butt pic is more accepted, and dangerous, bigoted rhetoric is less so.ā
Hey @staff this isnāt where your crusade should start.
Iām in full support of taking down abusive content and child pornography, but there are other issues that should be addressed rather than pictures of nipples from consenting adults
you know what? fuck this shitty ass website, Iām done. ^what they said, thereās a huge difference between child pornography and sexual imagery of consenting adults. @staff this website has NEVER BEEN A WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT AND I FRANKLY DONāT KNOW WHAT THE SHIT YOUāRE TALKING ABOUT. Take a look back, and youāll find an array of bullying abuse and harassment, take Zamii for example, however much good people thought they were doing in their harassment of the poor woman is immediately outweighed by the fact that THEY LITERALLY DROVE HER TO NEARLY COMMIT SUICIDE OVER A PIECE OF FUCKING FANART. this website is honestly one of the most shallow and superficial forces on the internet, and for you fuckers to try and act all virtuous like youāre FOSTERING ANYTHING POSITIVE WITH THIS ACTION is just a sick fucking lie.
For anyone who follows me and enjoys Homesick (which I may continue eventually but itās hard to say right now tbh) you can reach me on reddit at Pizzaface4372. No judgement to any of you who still like tumblr and will continue to use it, this was just a final straw for me in terms of the companyās negligence and poor management. This rant isnāt directed at any specific people I just needed to let off some steam.
And so, like this website, my blog goes out with a bang. @staff thanks for nothing bitches tumut
~SM
