![]() ![]() His subscription-focused revenue plan explicitly makes Twitter less vulnerable to advertiser pressure, and the platform already has a sizable pornographic library, despite its clear violation of Google and Apple app store guidelines.Įlon Musk has increasingly alienated advertisers leaving Twitter in a precarious position. By contrast, Musk’s Twitter has some advantages. “McDonalds doesn’t want their Happy Meal to appear next to fist-fucking,” says Professor Susanna Paasonen, an expert on sexual platforms at the University of Turku.įor sex work to flourish on a social media, the platform needs to allow anonymity, incentivize friendly interaction, display visual content well, reliably verify accounts and implement safe monetization options.Ĭurrent Tumblr succeeds in some of this, but is enslaved to prudish masters, and so we have their “yes to breasts, no to sex” approach. ![]() On top of that, Tumblr earns most of its money from advertisers, which are usually prudish. The platform still explicitly bans “visual depictions of sexually explicit acts” because, as Mullenweg explained in a post in September, “Credit card companies are anti-porn… App stores, particularly Apple’s, are anti-porn.” Major creators scrambled to sanitize their pages, only to have all their content removed, and users left in droves.īut Tumblr’s newly announced return of nudity is not a full reversal of its failed policy. NSFW communities were Tumblr’s spine and ripping them out made the whole platform collapse inwards. Verizon’s 2018 ban on “adult content” was inevitable. When Verizon bought the company in 2017, they inherited a site riddled with illegal content, with no easy means of conforming to the incoming 2018 anti-trafficking laws SESTA and FOSTA, which held platforms liable for illegal sexual content. Tumblr was a special place, but largely so because of lax moderation. ![]() I slowly started posting more NSFW content on Tumblr after years of being too shy to do so… but when I began doing it, it felt very liberating, and as a genderfluid, trans photography and cosplay artist, it meant I could express myself in a way that wasn’t bombarded by judgement. Ashley describes her early days on Tumblr: Case in point is cosplay artist Ashley Barron, who gained thousands of followers and monetized it through Patreon, ranking among its top creators. As popular “femboy” sex worker Jamie Locke reminisced, “ made me feel like ‘oh wow there are people here who are into the same things as me, maybe I’m not that weird after all.’”įamous pornstar Cherie DeVille told me that the platform was not particularly useful for industry sex workers - production companies turned to Twitter and Instagram instead - but Tumblr’s uniquely gay, feminine and friendly user base birthed a different kind of star. Pairing visual content with user anonymity made for a distinctly affirming space, particularly around sex. ![]() Tumblr also didn’t tie profiles to real identities. Following someone on Tumblr allowed you to access their digital scrapbook. Unlike Twitter, which started one year earlier, you didn’t get attention for snarky replies or generic content. They are infamous for killing sex worker accounts that perfectly conform with their rules.įounded in 2007, Tumblr allowed anyone to make a customizable blog and curate it with text, images, and GIFs, be it original work or reposted (“tumbled”) from the blogs of other users. TikTok and Instagram, for instance, don’t just ban nudity. No matter what the “extremely libertarian” Mullenweg and ostensibly pro-free-speech Musk may like, those days aren’t coming back. This may spark optimism in those reminiscing over the hornier days of the internet, but it’s a false hope. ◾️Nudity in art or nudity related to "political or newsworthy speech" ![]()
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