NOTE: For all latest, breaking news related to Tumblr adult content ban as well as its alternatives, head here.
After a brief period of uncertainty that followed Tumblr app’s removal from the Apple App Store, when Tumblr finally revealed the reason behind it, the company said some child pornography related material went undetected on its platform. Here’s what the company had exactly said:
We’re committed to helping build a safe online environment for all users, and we have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to media featuring child sexual exploitation and abuse
As this is an industry-wide problem, we work collaboratively with our industry peers and partners like NCMEC to actively monitor content uploaded to the platform
Every image uploaded to Tumblr is scanned against an industry database of known child sexual abuse material, and images that are detected never reach the platform
A routine audit discovered content on our platform that had not yet been included in the industry database. We immediately removed this content
Content safeguards are a challenging aspect of operating scaled platforms. We’re continuously assessing further steps we can take to improve and there is no higher priority for our team
While Tumblr may have taken notice of such material now, it’s a well known fact that child pornography related stuff existed on the platform for years. Needless to say, because of this, Tumblr has been a fertile ground for those who are sexually attracted to children (more commonly known as pedophiles).
Naturally, the decision to ban all adult content has affected these people as well. While there are many alternatives where Tumblr refugees may be heading to, there is no concrete information on the next destination of these pedophiles.
We did a little research on this, and found a lot of chatter on Twitter suggesting these people have flocked to the micro-blogging platform.
Unsurprisingly, the Twitter community isn’t happy about this migration. In fact, many of them have been reporting these accounts apparently operated by pedophiles. Following are some tweets we came across related to the matter:
https://twitter.com/feministransguy/status/1078909290088488960
https://twitter.com/Tht_Fat_Bastiat/status/1080673144460005377
https://twitter.com/AcrylicSkeleton/status/1080680095545806848
https://twitter.com/CM_Valgard/status/1078841034120065024
https://twitter.com/DM_ME_YOUR_CATS/status/1078772481572438016
https://twitter.com/pussyboiraj/status/1078775435188531200
https://twitter.com/NOTAR3PUBLICAN/status/1079803259601203200
https://twitter.com/JakeKimmell/status/1079429360283717632
https://twitter.com/martindufresne/status/1081218862283214848
https://twitter.com/Jo310494612/status/1080969654506606592
https://twitter.com/benFranklin2018/status/1079234071409119232
https://twitter.com/JacksterLackst1/status/1079060914157043712
Agreed, none of these reports include proof that cements the allegation of pedophile mass migration from Tumblr to Twitter, but given the number of such reports (see here), you can’t ignore all this as hot air.
Our research is still under progress. Will update this story with more relevant information as and when we come across anything newsworthy. Meanwhile, use the comments section below to let us know your view on the matter.
NOTE: PiunikaWeb has covered in detail the Tumblr adult content ban as well as the platform’s alternatives, check out all updates here.
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