Views expressed in opinion columns are the author’s own.
(Note: Pornography often involves violent and abusive depictions of women. When this article refers to pornography and endorses its presence, it is strictly referring to pornography where actors are fully consenting, work in respecting and safe environments and do not involve works that romanticize or condone violence against its actors.)
On Dec. 17, Tumblr, the nebulous home of teenage angst, will be banning all adult content, flagging and removing content deemed too sexual. The forbidden materials include photos, videos or GIFs with human genitalia, “female-presenting nipples” and content showing sex acts. Don’t worry, though — “female-presenting nipples” shown in breastfeeding and birthing contexts are OK.
Since Tumblr was founded in 2007, it’s become both notorious and famous for being one of the internet’s most porn-friendly sites. In fact, part of the reason Tumblr was created was to showcase porn. Though the site changed its image to appear friendlier and more appealing to younger users, Tumblr was recently removed from Apple’s App Store following an issue with child pornography.
The site then launched its mission to remove explicit material from its site. But this ban is not only ineffective; it’s violating users’ rights as well.
The site’s method of sifting through its content hasn’t been working. The algorithms that Tumblr is using has been marking the wrong posts: non-sexual works have been flagged as inappropriate while sexual content has been passed over. The AI is incorrectly flagging people’s tags, artwork and animated works. This detracts from artists’ exposure, and their ability to garner business using the site.
And even if people’s work is sexual in nature, it’s problematic to censor and flag it. Of course, criminal content should be taken off the site, and the site should be allowed to enforce age restrictions on viewing sexual content. But the site should not be censoring work simply because it is sexual.
Tumblr is known for featuring niche sexual interests and artwork. If that work isn’t child pornography, shown to underage users or similarly dangerous, then no matter how weird the work appears, it shouldn’t be censored.
Tumblr also risks venturing into the realm of directed discrimination. The site’s algorithms currently do not differentiate between posts about sexuality and those featuring pornography. LGBTQ+ users have already argued that the site is targeting queer content. This erosion of queer content on a site that is famous for providing a forum to discuss sexuality and sex is incredibly disturbing.
This is not to mention the hilarity of banning the ever-sexualized and universally terrifying “female-presenting nipple.” While they’re allowed in certain contexts, they’re obviously inherent signals of wanton sexuality and must therefore be hidden away. Of course, this is completely different from their completely acceptable counterpart, the “male-presenting nipple.” It’s ridiculous.
Basically, the ban is trying to get rid of all visual content that is remotely sexual, but it’s targeting all the wrong things and isn’t accomplishing what it set out to do. Not only is this mission impossible, it’s unhelpful and invasive.
While we should be working to eliminate child pornography, depictions of abuse and romanticized forms of violence (trigger warning), trying to get rid of sexual material wholesale doesn’t help anyone. All it does is suppress sex-positive content creators and contribute to a culture that promotes a lack of awareness and education concerning sex.
Instead, the site should reform its algorithms to actually target child pornography and ensure that sexual content is not shown to minors. Tumblr should emulate Google and Microsoft, which have worked to stop online searches for child pornography and abuse. Essentially, the site should work to address the actual issue rather than hunting down harmless material. Child abuse is more serious than art featuring furries, and it should be treated as such.
Jasmine Baten is a junior English major. She can be reached at jasminebaten137@gmail.com.
