Tumblrpocalypse is what they called it—or maybe you might recognize it as the “2018 Tumblr migration.” I know it as the “porn ban,” where all adult content was banned from the social media platform Tumblr in an attempt to clean up the app. (Spoiler: for $$$.) The neologism stands: the erasure of sexually explicit content marked the decline of Tumblr, but also the surge in popularity of newer platforms like OnlyFans, Justforfans, and Fansly (and Twitter too). Yet when recounting the golden days of Tumblr, it is important to understand what exactly was erased: not just the content, but the sense of community associated with the platform. More than just adult images, the porn ban felt like Tumblr backtracking on the principles that made it the popular platform it was. Let’s take a brief trip back in our social media history class and revisit the demise of Tumblr.
THE STORY
During the late half of November 2018, Tumblr vanished from the Apple Store as it was dealing with issues of child pornography on the platform. The next month, then-CEO Jeff D’Onofrio announced all adult content on Tumblr would be banned effective December 17th, 2018. This decision was allegedly made to keep Tumblr in guidance with the Apple App Store guidelines, yet the issue for sex workers, LGBTQIA+ activists, and sex-postive enthusiasts lied in the fact that consensual and voluntary not-safe-for-work (NSFW) content was removed from the platform as a result of these new policy changes. The question stands: who did these new changes benefit if it deplatformed an entire community that helped create the social media blogging site? The answer is as straightforward and simply as you might guess it to be: the new investors.
Created in 2007, Tumblr’s founder David Karp marketed the site as a space for creative expression for users, encouraging NSFW content to be broadcasted and posing no foreseeable boundaries or rules. Instead, Karp encouraged Tumblr to be used for this type of content. This changed in 2013, when Tumblr was acquired by Yahoo for $1.1billion USD. Users expressed their hesitancy and skepticism but were momentarily eased when the CEO of Yahoo seemed to acknowledge the presence of NSFW content on the platform. In 2017 when Verizon Communications bought Yahoo, new regulations were set into place. The short version goes as follows: Verizon cannot run ads alongside porn if it wants to generate money off the platform.
The aim to ban porn on Tumblr was inevitable, but the child pornography found on the website expedited this process in hopes of capitalizing on the website’s fandom and social reach. Occurring simultaneously was the passing of the FOSTA-SESTA laws that held website operators criminally and civilly accountable for sex trafficking. These laws would hold Verizon responsible if they allowed for NSFW content to remain on the site. Thus, the Tumblr that was once celebrated as being a safe space for LGBTQIA+ individuals to express their sexuality openly was taken from those who helped create it.
EFFECT
The reception to this news for users was nothing short of a catastrophe; the platform and digital community sex workers, queer people, sex enthusiasts created were being modified into something more profitable and advertisable. The effects surpassed just the erasure of sexually explicit content. Users were left without a community to help outsource and outreach. Many up-and-coming sex workers who had built their platforms on Tumblr and were starting to build a following (which could turn into economic growth) were forced to look to other platforms if they wanted to continue. Yet, nothing could ever replace or replicate the atmosphere provided by Tumblr, which was a space for people to feel free to have open and honest discussion “around gender identity, sexuality, and physical appearance” that did not uphold the “heterosexual and homosexual paradigms” other platforms like Instagram or Facebook had. For trans folks specifically, the adult content ban made it harder for people to document and trace their journey of gender-affirming surgery with pictures that were consistently flagged as adult content. Countless articles came out talking about the “death” of Tumblr as users took it upon themselves to leave Tumblr in the dust—just as it did to them.
REACTION
Sex workers, porn stars, and everyone who used Tumblr for sexually explicit consumption boycotted Tumblr in two ways: non-use, and migration. Non-use came in 3 ways: disrupting the regular pattern in which users spent on Tumblr, logging off, and completely wiping one’s Tumblr page clean and removing themselves from the app altogether. The other reaction was to move to other platforms that either were still sex and porn positive, or not yet hit with strict guidelines and restrictions.
Jeff D’Onofrio made this statement in his address to the Tumblr community amid the infamous “Tumblr Porn Ban”:
“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”.
That’s exactly what happened. Twitter has been a site for X-rated content, and is easily accessible once you can bypass the shadow bans. The introduction of subscription-based platforms like Patreon, OnlyFans, Fansly, and JustFor.Fans have also become new avenues for sex workers to build their own community to showcase what Tumblr no longer allowed them to do. The death of Tumblr has marked a turning point for digital sex work, and from its demise we see the success of newer platforms aimed at keeping the NSFW communities wishes’ alive.
Written by Destiny Maldonado
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