Tumblr made the controversial decision to limit its users/visitors to SFW (safe for work) content a few months ago, and so far the numbers are looking grim. According to the AltPress, Tumblr's ban on adult content has seen its viewership drop by 30 percent over 3 months, which translates to a loss of 150 million visits, down from the rate of 521 million they managed before the big change.
The greatest takeaway here isn't related to Tumblr's fiscal losses, or the decline of Internet-scrapbooking, but an issue misunderestimated by the pencil pushers who sit in office: North American are grossly affected by pornography, to the point of addiction it would seem.
You may have heard, hundreds if not thousands of fairweather Tumblr users began petitioning the moment the platform issued the ban, demanding the company reverse their policy to accommodate their self-gratifying needs. In that regard, Tumblr's loss is Reddit's to gain since its filter system allows for content with light moderation. Nonetheless, Tumblr wound up publishing a disclaimer where they re-iterated all the reasons for the policy change, much to the dismay of the excommunicated adulterers.
"A couple of weeks ago we announced an update to our Community Guidelines regarding adult content, and we’ve received a lot of questions and feedback from you," began their disclaimer. "First and foremost, we are sorry that this has not been an easy transition and we know we can do a better job of explaining what we’re doing. We knew this wasn’t going to be an easy task and we appreciate your patience as we work through the challenges and limitations of correctly flagging tens of billions of GIFs, videos, and photos."
On a more serious note, Tumblr does stand to lose some credibility in censoring overt sexuality on their platform, because at its inception, it was conceived as a liberal container for freedom of expression. But inherently, even "freedom" as we've come to know it in the new dawn, is contingent on certain privileges. Not to mention, Tumblr evolved into a safe space for sex workers to do their bidding. That's no longer a reality, with the kibosh on "adult content" as it stands.
