A better, more positive Tumblr

Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).  

Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.

So what is changing?

Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

Like you, we love Tumblr and what it’s come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.

Jeff D’Onofrio CEO

Censorship is bad! I will delete my tumblr account on Dec 17.

YOU SAID NOTHING!

A letter to CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, NYT, Wash Post, USA Today:

   1. You said nothing when Obama used drone strikes to execute people abroad.

2. You said nothing about Russia for 25 years until Trump was inaugurated. 

3. You said nothing about Hillary’s campaign manager’s brother being paid $175,000 to lift U.S. sanctions on Russia. 4. You said nothing, when Obama engaged in military interventionism in Libya without Congressional approval. 5. You said nothing when Obama greatly expanded presidential power through the use of Executive Orders. 6. You said nothing when Obama filled his White House with lobbyists after he said he wouldn’t. 7. You said nothing when Obama gave 47 of his fundraisers Administration jobs. 8. You said nothing about the murders and rapes at the hands of illegal immigrants. 9. You said nothing when Hillary’s net worth rose over $100 million as Secretary of State, in part, because her husband took money from foreign governments. 10. You said nothing after Obama’s net worth rose over $10 million as President. 11. You said nothing when Obama’s Justice Dept. wiretapped/surveilled reporters such as James Rosen and the AP. 12 You said nothing when Obama restricted immigration 6 times with Executive Orders. 13. You said nothing when Obama set a record for deportations. 14. You said nothing when Bill Clinton met Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac during the Clinton investigation. 15. You said nothing when Hillary was fed debate questions. 16. You said nothing when Obama and Hillary lied about a video and Benghazi when 4 American diplomats were slaughtered by Libyan  riots. 17. You said nothing when Obama’s IRS abused the rights of taxpayers. 18. You said nothing when Obama’s White House held meetings with lobbyists in coffee shops near White House to avoid disclosure requirements 19. You said nothing when Eric Holder sold the guns, you hate, to criminals and some were used to kill Americans. 20. You said nothing when the Clintons’ took White House property. 21. You said nothing when Hillary laughed off defending a child-rapist. 22. You said nothing when Hillary lied about her private use of a private email server as Secretary of State. 23. You said nothing when Janet Reno, under Bill Clinton, used a tank to kill the Branch Davidians. 24. You said nothing when, on May 13, 1985, a bomb was dropped on a row house in Philadelphia to uproot the black liberation group known as Move, resulting in a fire that eventually burned down 61 houses, killed 11 people (including five children) and injured dozens. 25. You said nothing when child Eliah Gonzales was forcibly deported, using guns to Cuba. 26. You said nothing when George Soros paid protesters to burn parts of Ferguson. 27. You said nothing about states’ rights until Trump’s Executive orders on immigration. 28. You said nothing about Obama’s smoking. 29. You said nothing about the record numbers of people on government assistance. 30. You said nothing about the number of part time and low paying jobs under the Obama recovery. 31. You said nothing when Obama had SWAT teams raid a Gibson guitar factory and seize property, on the purported basis that Gibson had broken India’s environmental laws - but no charges were filed. 32. You said nothing when Obama claimed that the Fort Hood shooting was “workplace violence” rather than terrorism. 33. You said nothing when Obama ended some terror asylum restrictions, by allowing asylum for people, who provided only “insignificant” or “limited” material support of terrorists. 34. You said nothing when the national debt doubled under Obama. 35. You said nothing when 9 times the Supreme Court unanimously overturned Obama’s expansive use of Executive Power. 36. You said nothing when Obama dismissed charges, filed by the Bush Administration against New Black Panther Party members, who were videotaped, intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling station during the 2008 election. 37. You said nothing when Obama released Guantanamo detainees, who then went back to kill Americans. 38. You said nothing when Obama unilaterally changed Congressional law by Executive Order. 39. You said nothing when Obama fired an inspector general after investigating an $850,000 AmeriCorps grant, received by a nonprofit, run by former NBA star and Obama supporter Kevin Johnson. 40. You said nothing about the 36 Obama’s executive office staffers that owed $833,970 in back taxes 41. You said nothing when Obama Killed four Americans overseas in counter-terrorism operations without a judicial process. 42. You said nothing when Obama sent millions in cash in ransom to Iran So NOW, you are voicing your objections about 12 months of Trump, I’m sorry… we can’t hear you, because you said NOTHING before!!!

Amen