Tumblr made some major changes to the way it approaches NSFW content.
Earlier this week, the platform introduced a new “safe mode”, which when enabled, does not allow the display of NSFW content to users unless they choose it themselves.
This may seem like a fairly simple change, but it has already been shown to be controversial, and not only for the reasons you think.
The Tumblr community has long been known as a free intellectual group where everything can be displayed, including porn and many other types of NSFW content. Not only that, but Tumblr's freedom has created countless communities of people who share and enjoy a large portion of this content.
The company's guidelines prohibit certain types of material, such as harassment, unwanted messages and overly graphic images, but generally the company has very few restrictions regarding sexual content. Thus, naturally, Tumblr has developed its reputation as a social network with the most porn. In reality, TechCrunch notes that the so‑called “adult content” is the top category that drives immediate clicks to Tumblr's website, according to data from the company's analytics firm SimilarWeb.
This brings us back to safe mode and why it engages so many people. Primarily, it seems that Tumblr's content filtering system is a bit excessive regarding what is considered “sensitive” (which may include “nude in an artistic, educational or journalistic context” according to Tumblr's guidelines) or “exploitation. ”
Many users report that the safety mode incorrectly flags more innocent photos and images as inappropriate. Others claim that the filtering system blocks content with LGBT themes that are not sexual in nature (this was also the case in 2013, when Tumblr introduced safe search features that prevented NSFW content from appearing in search results).
This is especially annoying for underage Tumblr users, as minors cannot opt out of the safe mode.
Also the safe mode setting is now automatically enabled for new users and logged-out users. Additionally, logged-out users will not have the ability to exit safe mode from July 5.
All of this raises questions about Tumblr's motives for the “safe mode”. While the site has positioned the changes as a security feature that aims to provide “more control over what you see”, it also happens to coincide with the completion of the sale of Tumblr's parent company Yahoo to Verizon. It is not difficult to imagine that the new corporate owners of Tumblr may have an interest in reducing the visibility of some of the more “inappropriate” content on Tumblr than Yahoo.
Whether this is the whole story or not, the new changes are considered by some as a worrying sign of what will follow.
