We can all get naked on Tumblr again
All nudity will be back on Tumblr, the platform announced — just not depictions of explicit sex. The new community guidelines state, “Nudity and other kinds of adult material are generally welcome. We’re not here to judge your art, we just ask that you add a Community Label to your mature content so that people can choose to filter it out of their Dashboard if they prefer.” But all “visual depictions of sexually explicit acts (or content with an overt focus on genitalia)” will not be allowed.
The ban on adult content was put in place in 2018, and many said they felt it was the death of the blogging and social networking site. Tumblr also enforced a ban on “female-presenting nipples”, which confused many of its users, and was mocked for its odd turn of phrase. They still allowed “female presenting nipples” in the context of art, or what they considered art.
The platform have waited a considerable amount of time to lift the ban, with the rules first being put into place in 2018 due to the serious issues of child pornography on the site. Tumblr was removed from the Apple app store at the time, blatantly disregarding rules that clearly stated that all apps must have a rigid system to filter out this material for the protection of its users.
However, there is still some confusion around the new Tumblr guidelines. Many posts are still being taken down despite adhering to the rule to mark the image as sexual content, and it would seem the new set of changes are taking their time to phase in.
Those who rely on the site are predicting a migration back to Tumblr for lifting the ban, following the news Elon Musk will take over Twitter. The Washington Post reported that Twitter may start paywalling some of its content, so that adult creators can make money off their posts as opposed to just promoting their OnlyFans.
What may seem like a libertarian move for Tumblr is facing backlash already from the internet, and those excited for the change were met with confusion. The new guidelines are stepping towards a territory where control of its creators and censorship may be more difficult, all in the pursuit for Tumblr to become relevant again.
