As a professional developer, I can sympathize with the technical hurdles that Tumblr faces with finding an algorithm that adequately monitors inappropriate NSFW content on the site. It is not easy. It is NOT as simple as “fix the algorithm”. But ruling in favor of banning all NSFW content and censoring content with a faulty algorithm is NOT OKAY.
This blog will remain on Tumblr after this so called “purge”. We will be continuing our goal of spreading positivity and motivation for the RWBY fandom. We stand by those who are being treated unfairly by the ruling the cowardly Tumblr management made, but ending the spread of positivity is not how we will accomplish it.
Our queue will be stopped as of 12a EST. It will resume on Tuesday.
(with apologies to Penny - she’s not stupid, she’s just the best we could do for a bot)
So Tumblr done goofed. To fix their moderation problems with specific and highly illegal things, they’re banning all NSFW content. We’ve already seen that people aren’t happy with it, Verizon had 3.5% wiped off their stock following the announcement. Not Tumblr, not Yahoo, Verizon. The parent company’s parent company.
And, between moderation by algorithm being at best hit and miss and at worst the virtual equivalent of flushing their heads down a toilet, the effective booting out of a huge portion of Tumblr’s userbase, and the pissing off of a huger portion of those that remain, this is just about the worst way of going about fixing the problems possible. Half the userbase is going to have either been kicked out or bailed in protest, and it won’t fix the problem because bots are terrible.
I believe this blog should remain. The gagging of thousands of creators is detestable and flat out ridiculous, the algorithms are already flagging SFW content in abundance (including on this blog) because bots are terrible, and Tumblr staff are morons for doing this, but ending a positivity feed in the face of this doesn’t seem to me to be the best way of going about it.
Support creativity, hate censorship of art.
As a blogger, I was tired of seeing all of the NSFW spam posts when I wanted to look at the content I wanted to see. Something needed to be done to get rid of the spam content but content creators should not be punished for this. Not only are NSFW creators having their creativity stifled, but other tags, especially in the QUILTBAG community and certain mental health tags are being suppressed as well.
Targeting a group of people from having their experiences heard and finding others online who have found comfort in what was supposed to be a safe haven for all is absolutely uncalled for. And even if we just look at banning NSFW content; while it may be NSFW nudity does not equate to sex. For as long as there has been art, we have been sculpting, drawing, and painting nudes. We should not punish the many due to the actions of a few.
I’ve even seen it affect this blog. When we search for cosplay and even promotions for RWBYMOT, it has become extremely difficult to find them. And the people we support, or anyone, deserve to have their content visible.
We are here for you, and we support you.
As long as I’ve been on Tumblr, I’ve been annoyed by seeing porn bots/nsfw spam blogs invading the tags I frequent. Something needed to be done, HOWEVER, what Tumblr is trying to do now by banning all NSFW content is not the way to do it. It will stifle content creators who aren’t hurting anyone and even people who aren’t posting NSFW content at all since using an algorithm like this is very faulty. Hopefully with enough of us all protesting, they’ll decide to change their decision.
