Hi, I wrote up a little letter for people to send to staff in response to their recent statement about the most recent transfem ban wave to ask more of staff concerning this issue. If that's something it's appropriate to share on this blog I've included it below as well as steps for submitting feedback below if anyone hasn't done it before or needs clear instructions. If you (or anyone else) have suggestions for me or want to make alterations/additions feel free. If this isn't the right place for it, no worries and have a wonderful day
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Dear Staff,
I appreciate that staff has reinstated some accounts that were banned in the last wave and I think the current "goal of responding to mistaken suspension appeals within 24 hours" is a good step in moving forward.
However, today I was made aware of the banning of a blog which criticized staff's well recorded actions against trans bloggers only hours after staff's apology went out. See here: https://www.tumblr.com/turbro/814174690287484929/this-blog-being-deleted-by-staff-less-than-3-hours?
The fact that this occurred indicates to me that knowledge about the issue is still being suppressed by punishing bloggers who draw attention to it, and implies that staff may not be planning to follow through on its promises to the LGBTQ+ community.
With this in mind, by the beginning of June (pride month) I would like to hear a plan for staff to:
1) Address the transphobia in their ranks by identifying which moderators, procedures and/or site features are causing transwomen and their posts to be disproportionately surveilled and banned,
2) Make both the banning and appeals processes more rigorous and transparent in general and when it comes to transwomen- especially transwomen of color- in particular,
When this plan is laid out, I want to see monthly updates detailing how and when each step of the plan is implemented.
Apologies are not sufficient redress for the material harm done to people caught in ban waves like the most recent one. People rely on social media like Tumblr as part of their social networks, for mutual aid, and even for their careers. As @husbanddaughter said before they were banned, "the normal number of people to have their accounts removed from your platform, without being given any warning or an opportunity after the fact to request any kind of appeal, based solely off of the false reports being made by open and proud bigots and serial harassers, is none…it certainly shouldn't be happening almost exclusively to an extremely vulnerable minority demographic."
I hope that Tumblr is willing to take these steps to become a site which is safe for trans people.
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Steps for anyone who hasn't sent feedback to staff before:
Go to this link: https://help.tumblr.com/
Click the light blue "Contact Support" button in the top right corner
From the Category drop-down, select "Feedback"
Write your message in the text box below (or copy and paste the letter above)
Complete the reCAPTCHA and click "Next" at the bottom of the screen
Next a "Does any of this help?" page will come up. Click the light blue "No, send my thing" button.
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