Dear Tumblr,
To the many of you out there who have used this platform as a vehicle for creativity, information, humor and self-expression, I want you to know that in spite of Tumblr’s new direction, I stand with you.
I owe a lot to Tumblr as a company and the thousands of users who have given me and my content an audience over the last decade. When I unceremoniously quit my job at a television station in 2010, Tumblr was one of two platforms where I found and developed my voice. In 2011, I was nominated for a journalism award based on a Tumblr-based project, and that same year I met a future boss through Tumblr who would offer me a position at a prestigious news outlet in New York City, further elevating my voice in the journalism industry. Back in those days, when Tumblr worked as an information platform, a number of news pieces that did not much attention on other social media sites went viral on Tumblr in large part because of the intelligent, opinionated, open-minded, cultured audience Tumblr had amassed through its mission of promoting smart, unique content. Later on, when Tumblr moved away from news, the amount of content I published to the site decreased, but the amount of content I consumed and enjoyed definitely increased. I’ve met a number of amazing journalists, musicians, artists and celebrities (Wil Whaten follows me! How cool is that?) through this service. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to Tumblr as a company and “Tumblr” as a collective audience for the love that my work has been shown and the amount of entertainment I’ve been given over the last ten years.
As many of you know, earlier this month, Tumblr announced it would ban certain content from its website, going so far as to state it would remove content and even scrub some accounts that violated its new policy on what it found acceptable over objectionable. Specifically, Tumblr said it would ban “adult content,” which includes “photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals.” It has been speculated that Tumblr’s new position was largely the result of Apple’s decision (since reversed) to drop its mobile app from their app store over illicit content that was discovered on the platform, though no one really knows Tumblr’s true motive for its hard stance against certain content, and Tumblr has not come right out and said so.
Tumblr’s decision can only be described as an over-reaction to a very real and serious problem. Literally no one is advocating for Tumblr to remain open to people who want to share illegal, exploitative content. Tumblr can, and should, do more to ensure that illicit content does not get posted to the site and is quickly removed when it slips through.
But Tumblr’s ban on “adult content,” as defined, is an over-reaction to a serious problem. It immolates a community full of people who use the platform in a positive way. It rolls innocuous photos, like the one I’m posting here, into the “objectionable” category when, in fact, the content is not. It is creative. It is expressive. It is unique. It is the type of material that can only work on Tumblr, and it is a key reason why people not only rely, but have come to genuinely love, this platform and the people who use it.
It is worrisome to think that the line may not stop here with Tumblr. Other forms of expressive content could be next on the chopping block if Tumblr feels it needs to bow to the pressures of any third party, or if it feels its business model warrants it, or if it simply just wants to outlaw it. What could be next to go? Music videos with explicit rap lyrics? Cartoons that feature heated political dialogue? Links to news stories on important but sensitive topics? As a journalist who relies on the fundamental principles of free speech, thought and expression, any of these moves make me very uncomfortable. It should make everyone uncomfortable.
Worse yet, Tumblr’s non-transparent attempt to sanitize the platform of adult content does nothing to prevent the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of users who continue to enjoy the freedom to post hateful, harmful and derogatory content. As a number of people have pointed out, Tumblr accounts that glorify neo-Nazism and mass shooters still remain active. This content is arguably more objectionable, if not more adult, than a photo of a dude with his butt out on the beach.
So, to the hundreds of you out there who are facing a likely purge next Monday, I want you to know that I’m sorry. I’m sorry it came to this. And through this post, I want you to know I stand with you. If so many amazing, creative, expressive users, media and blogs are going to be wiped from the platform, we may as well all go down together. In the meantime, enjoy the view.
-Matthew
