Tumblr, the blogging platform, banned adult content, including nudity and pornography, in 2018. Despite years of opposition from certain groups, Tumblr stands firm four years later in a statement released by Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg.
Tumblr's anti-porn policy prohibits users from posting any not-safe-for-work (NSFW) content, which includes nudity, pornography, and media depicting "real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples."
The Guardian reports that some users left the website as a result of the ban and switched to services with laxer rules, particularly Twitter, which continues to permit adult content with few restrictions. However, Tumblr persisted, and since Automattic acquired the platform, users have pushed for a change in the policy.
Tumblr Is Not Recommitting to Porn
In a recent statement, Automattic's CEO was unequivocal: "Go Nuts, Show Nuts" will not work in 2022. Despite the site's history of allowing various types of adult content, the Tumblr CEO believes that "the casually porn-friendly era of the early internet is currently impossible."
Tumblr recently released a new Community Labels feature that enables users to "fully express themselves while also having control over what they encounter on their dashboard," prompting some to make assumptions that Tumblr was on the verge of lifting its 2018 porn ban. Mullenweg explains why this is not the case by listing several reasons.
Problems with Lax Policies
Mullenweg first mentions that lax policies on pornography actually conflict with credit card companies' own porn policies. The co-founder of WordPress presents a situation in PornHub, where credit cards are no longer accepted and are effectively blocked.
This accentuates the fact that if credit card companies refuse to accept you, you are effectively barred from participating in the modern economy. And that is something that a comparatively small platform like Tumblr is unlikely to do.
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The Tumblr chief also stressed that Tumblr must continue to adhere to Apple's App Store rules, which have historically caused the platform a great deal of difficulty. According to a TechCrunch report, the App Store does not allow any apps with pornographic content. He also mentioned how Tumblr recently began asking users for their birthdays in order to prevent minors from viewing inappropriate content.
The other issue is that if the ban is lifted, non-consensual porn and other illegal content might find their way onto Tumblr. Such content might lead to legal action or a government crackdown, Mullenweg warns.
"Tumblr has no way to go back and identify the featured persons or the legality of every piece of adult content that was shared on the platform and taken down in 2018, nor does it have the resources or expertise to do that for new uploads," Mullenweg also explains.
Simply put, the executive of the blogging site makes it abundantly clear that inclining toward NSFW content at this point in Internet history is extremely difficult and contentious.
