#491pop

[ver-sashi]

Enjoying NSFW content with “female-presenting nipples” but then Tumblr bans it  #491PoP

[alitzelaoearroyo]

Can Tumblr stop sexualizing the female body? I didn’t even come here for the boobs but banning boobs ruined this stupid website.

In your effort to perfect your platform so you could sell it to investors, you ruined your value as a website.

[alexort1984]

The image above contains a screenshot of Tumblr’s stance on pornographic content prior to it being acquired by Verizon. According to Gillespie, “Platforms must, in some form or another, moderate: both to protect one user from another, or one group from its antagonists, and to remove the offensive, vile, or illegal—as well as to present their best face to new users, to their advertisers and partners, and to the public at large” (2018, p.5). The former half of the statement reflects how moderation was handled on Tumblr prior to the Verizon acquisition. Adult content was very much welcomed on the platform as long as it was within legal boundaries. The latter half of Gillespie’s statement reflects how Verizon approached Tumblr’s moderation by banning inappropriate items including pornography. These changes were done in an attempt to accommodate and attract new users and advertisers alike. However, its core users instead decided to disown Tumblr as a result of these changes. While the image above only shows two user opinions, it can be seen that it has been liked or re-blogged by tens of thousands of users which would signify that they also share this sentiment.

[wsumme2]

Many guidelines on social media sites are framed in a more positive/optimistic manner. This is to try and create a sense of rules to their platform without being too forceful so that people still have that “want” to be on the platform. As Gillespie notes, “It is as if the sites can’t fully embrace the policing role they must play without reminding the reader of what the platform has to offer, in a language more suited to promotional material” (2018, p. 50). Moderation is important for social media platforms, and Tumblr specifically creating new guidelines on adult content should be necessary. However, it can be a double edged sword because some content that people deem isn’t inappropriate (as shown in the image above) may be deemed so due to specific keywords in the guidelines. This further demonstrates the importance in the language of specific guidelines and the manner in which such guidelines are presented to the community.

[yunggravyfanaccount-blog]

This week I did my content analysis on the article by Gillespie, “All Platforms Moderate”. What I found most interesting was how moderation comes into different forms depending on the circumstances. Some people have their entire accounts deleted while others will just have the post that caused an issue to be deleted. In Tumblr’s case, I think that the moderation that occurs when you first make an account is interesting because as a first time user, I was unfamiliar with how to navigate both the site and app but by asking the user what they are interested in, it helps. If those are your interests. If you interests are more niche, you would have to search for them individually. It is also interesting to look at the different hashtags that Tumblr puts forth for new users to see. Perhaps my perspective is skewed but when looking at the tags and even the sub-tags, they were very generic and didn’t push me into anything outside of my own viewpoint and I think Gillespie’s point that content that could be seen as distasteful or too extreme could be hazardous to advertising.  

My post was a meme detailing that due to the moderation of hashtags for a new user, it is difficult to find niche users and topics initially because you can only choose from a select variety.