On Monday, Tumblr CEO Jeff D’Onofrio announced in a post on the staff blog that explicit visual content will be banned from the site starting on December 17. That means no more sex acts, no more nudity, and no more “female-presenting nipples,” whatever that means.
Two former Tumblr employees said they were alarmed when Khalaf chose Black Lives Matter as an example of a community that the company should focus on converting into Yahoo media consumers.
“Simon explicitly said that Black Lives Matter was an opportunity to [make] a ton of money.”
“[The NSFW ban] was going to happen anyway,” the former engineer told me. “Verizon pushed it out the door after the child pornography thing and made the deadline sooner,” but the real problem was always that Verizon couldn’t sell ads next to porn.
Porn on Tumblr is something Verizon needs to wipe out if it’s going to make any money off what it thinks is actually valuable about the platform — enormous fandom and social justice communities that, just before the Verizon acquisition, Khalaf was insisting the staff figure out how to better monetize.
The former employee also noted that Tumblr’s engineering team has been shrinking, with senior staff leaving for other jobs without hearing counteroffers from Verizon. Odd, because Tumblr would probably have an easier time growing if there were more investment in basic problems that a robust engineering team could address
The search feature is notoriously terrible, and the limited discovery features on the platform are virtually useless. Tumblr has struggled with porn bots and bad ads for years, but its tools for rooting them out are also widely considered to be far below the industry standard.
Fandom communities, sex workers, researchers, and all kinds of Tumblr users who use the platform for a range of artistic or personal expression will find themselves restricted by the new rules — and many say it will force them to leave the platform.
“To alienate this loyal and vocal part of the site is shocking to me. Yet, on the other hand, when I read ‘female-presenting nipples’ I realized [Tumblr is] just another site that hates the female form. Is there any woman out here in 2018, sex worker or not, that’s surprised by the ability of a company to demonize a woman’s body? I don’t think so.”
A transgender Tumblr user and sex worker who wished to remain anonymous tells Vox, “Tumblr was a safe place to work for me because it allowed me to self manage. It’s actually more difficult that people think to get into sex work successfully online. Many cam sites are sketchy, will take the vast majority of your profits and make you sign over the rights to your content meaning they can repost it anywhere. [And] content like what I made/make is only really appealing to others in the LGBT community — I’m not wanted elsewhere and it’s hard for me to look at a profit anywhere else.”
[Kate Hagen] points out that many of Tumblr users are women, much or most of the explicit content on Tumblr “was made by, for, and about women,” and that Tumblr’s “all porn” reputation stems from the fact that “women were thrilled to finally find porn that fit their interests, and wanted to foster that community as much as possible.” The decision to squash all that, she says, is gendered, and a major loss.
[Internet archivist Jason Scott says] “You will never say to me that a phrase like ‘female-presenting nipples’ comes from a place of thought and consideration and working with your community.”
WATCH THIS: MAN SHUTS DOWN ANTISEMITIC WHITE POWER PREACHER
One of my friends in the Boston area took this video and gave me permission to post it. She writes: “ I stood there for twenty minutes, easily. Hitler Youth kept trying to preach about “the evils of the Jews” and the big guy barely let him get a word in edgewise. At one point, the big guy yelled, “I will be here ALL DAY” and the crowd cheered.”
I promise this will be the best thing you see today.
Where’s a goddamn bullhorn when you need it?
wow that preacher is probably shitting his pants low key with some big ass biker that close to his face
Caption for those who need it– the guy in the suit is saying shit like “all races must serve us as put here by God” and a lot of racist/anti Semitic drivel.
Every time he opens his mouth to speak though, the biker yells “AHHHHHHH!!!” Until the man in the suit shuts up again. When the man in the suit takes a breath and opens his mouth, the biker doesn’t even let him get started and just screams “AHHHHH”…. This happens a few times.
The guy in the suit plows ahead but the biker screams and says “No no no no!!!”
I love biker dude
Make racists afraid again.
Um, sorry, but the guy in the suit deserves to speak his opinions. How’d you like to get screamed at everything time you spoke about what you are passionate about? I’m not saying I agree with his opinion, but that doesn’t make shutting him down like this right. Freedom of Speech. Just agree to disagree and walk away.
1) Freedom of Speech means you have the right to speak your mind without being punished or censored by the government. It does not mean other people have to listen to you, and it does not mean they can’t yell over you if you’re saying something disgusting and inflammatory. The Biker Dude has just as much right to do what he’s doing as the Neo-Nazi. Nobody’s right is being infringed upon here.
2) The guy is “passionate about” hating and inciting violence against Jews. I’m passionate about information literacy, candle-making, and giving snuggles to my pet rabbit. There’s a fucking difference, there.
3) “Agree to disagree” is something you say when two people can’t come to a consensus over whether or not The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie. It’s not something you say when one person is Jewish and the other person believes Jews are a evil satanic cabal trying to enslave the white race who must be stopped at all costs. That’s not an “agree to disagree” topic. We don’t “agree to disagree” over the issue of whether or not Jews are people. We don’t “agree to disagree” over whether or not black people, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ folks, etc. are deserving of basic human rights. These things are not up for debate, and there is no middle-ground to be had with people who think otherwise.
“I can’t remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you’re saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it’s not literally illegal to express.” – Randall Munroe
Since I’ve seen quite a bit of discourse that basically amounts to “this is to get rid of the cp so it’s wrong to be angry” I think it should be pointed out that this is a lot more complex than people just not being able to nut on tumblr anymore.
It’s not that we want the cp to stay, it’s that we want tumblr to actually put in the work to moderate their fucking site so that they can get rid of cp and the bots (and nazis but this new ban won’t even effect them lol) without fucking over artists and sex workers who make their livelihood from this site, as well as women and queer folk for whom this site has been a crucial safe space for self expression.
It’s pretty disingenuous to act like this was the only way to eradicate cp from this site, and also to act like staff gives a shit about anything other than getting their app back on the store
Take your meds you beautiful gremlin! Even if they are across the room. Getting through today is not an option, at least take your meds so you don’t have to suffer more later on.
date a tall boy with black hair. date a boy who will hate the world with you. date a boy who drinks tea and will sit with you by the fire. date a boy with honour. date a boy who needs to capture the avatar to restore his honour. date prince zuko.
If I'm your savior, then you're mine. 