Tumblr is known for its troves of adult content, but it appears that the popular social networking site will be eradicating all explicit sexual content and nudity.
The new policy’s announcement comes days after Tumblr was removed from Apple’s iOS App Store over a child pornography incident.
“Adult content will no longer be allowed here,” the company said in a statement. This content include images, videos and GIFs featuring human genitalia, women’s nipples, and all forms of sexual acts.
However, Tumblr will continue to permit “written content such as erotica, nudity related to political or newsworthy speech, and nudity found in art, such as sculptures and illustrations.”
Users who already share adult content will be emailed by Tumblr, and their settings will automatically be changed to ‘private mode’. This means their content will no longer be able to be reblogged or shared.
With nearly 450 million blogs and 167 billion posts, Tumblr’s algorithm will be able to detect adult content, and flag it.
Tumblr boss Jeff D’Onofrio said that banning adult content would give the site “the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.”
“There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content,” he said in a statement.
However, there’s various flaws in Tumblr’s algorithm, with many users claiming they’ve been flagged for adult (NSFW – Not Suitable For Work) content, despite it being completely innocent.
Hey here’s why tumblr’s purge of NSFW will not work. Here is what was flagged as NSFW from my art blog ( a thread ) pic.twitter.com/mUTvbKVfaF
— ride shiny & chrome (•̀⌄•́) (@immortanjill) December 3, 2018
Things on my blog tumblr has flagged as “adult content”: the “handmaiden/feudal lord” meme and Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells. pic.twitter.com/S84dWzlM18
— Reuben Baron (@AndalusianDoge) December 3, 2018
Tumblr managed to flag everything but the single, solitary 2014 nipple on my entire blog. pic.twitter.com/MIO3w4XWSZ
— 🍁 Alisa ❄️ (@alzuna) December 3, 2018
Current users who do run adult-themed accounts can export their content before the changes come into play.
