NSFW vs Tumblr: The Flagging of a Whole Community

Stream 1: Communities and Web 2.0
                                                        Agnes Fonda (19772770)

NSFW vs Tumblr: The Flagging of a Whole Community

ABSTRACT
The NSFW (Not Safe for Work) hashtag has long been labelled pornographic on
various social media sites leading to their ban. One social media network,
Tumblr, however previously provided a safe platform for such a community to
exist due to its platform’s ability to be inclusive of all. Providing the members of
this the community of the NSFW hashtag with a way to self-discover, share, and
compliment one another. The site allowed this information to flow with positive
reinforcement and even include users whose blogs were not exclusively based
around the NSFW community to share nude content. Nudity was the driver of
Tumblr. However, after controversies regarding these communities and the
information that they were sharing the social networking site has decided to ban
nudity, leading to a major decline in the usage of Tumblr. Child pornography was
the major driver of this decision. This has caused the ban of the NSFW
community on Tumblr, which lead to the loss of the company’s image as well as
forced this community to search for new platforms to exist on. In this paper, I will
discuss the reason of Tumblr’s popularity with such a community, the way the
platform enabled this community to exist, the controversies between Tumblr and
the NSFW communities, which emerging platform did the majority of this
community migrate to and finally the question that was raised by many, “Is
Tumblr dead?”.

Key Words: NSFW, community, Tumblr, hashtag, social media networks, third
place, controversies, society, sex, pornography, nudity, self-expression, self-
exploration.

INTRODUCTION TO NSFW AND TUMBLR

Looking at the functioning of the NSFW community online, we first do have to
understand the meaning behind the hashtag. The abbreviation NSFW stands for
Not Safe for Work, this reflecting on the dominant ideologies and the values of
society within and outside of the internet. In this context ‘work’ is mostly
imagined in an office, department, education, or various other environment
relating to white-collar jobs. This further explains the beginning of the
abbreviation, meaning that to interact in this community while at work could
result in negative consequences, such as a warning or even the loss of the job.
This highlights the definition of work within society to be standardised as an
office desk job, furthermore representing the negative connotations society has
against nudity and pornography. Due to this main presentation of pornography
to be shameful, the discussion of people’s sexuality offline and online is often
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looked down upon. According to Vex Ahsley’s article (2019) “What turns us on is
confined to our deleted porn search history, away from polite society.” It is
shameful as per dominant society’s ideologies to discuss sexual identity
exploration with others. NSFW communities in opposition to this statement feel
free to express their naked bodies and sexual desires online in order to self-
discover and to explore other fantasies and experiences within the community.

The platform, Tumblr, therefore, can be understood as a ‘third place’ for the
users within this community. The concept third place was described as a “place
in which sociability tends to emerge […] a generic designation for a great variety
of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated
gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work [the so-called
first and second places]” (Moore & Hankinson Gathman & Ducheneaut, 2009).
As this is largely aimed at an offline situation, the description can be applied to
certain virtual and online platforms. Tumblr acts as a ‘third place’ for the NSFW
community as the activities do not take place at home nor at work. The
community strictly only able to exist online.

The emergence of hashtags on social media platforms including Tumblr has
allowed people to create communities around multiple or one hashtag. This
method to connect a community is often used online to communicate an idea
and/or interests, share news, protests, and many more. As described by Burns
and Burgess in 2011 “Senders include hashtags (brief keywords or
abbreviations, prefixed with the hash symbol ‘#’) in their messages to mark them
as addressing particular themes.” The NSFW hashtag is no other. Users who
participate in #nsfw share an interest and desire for online pornography. This
theme connects all the users engaging with the hashtag to a theme and
therefore creates a community in reliance on the shared interests. The hashtag,
therefore, creates a community. Furthermore, as most social media platforms
enable the usage of hashtags, the community of the tag is fluid and able to
adapt and function on other social media platforms. For example, the NSFW
hashtag exists not just on Tumblr but also visible on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram,
and even on the emerging platform TikTok (however, on this network it takes a
different form). By this, the community is not just tied to a single platform but
able to exist over multiple networks.

The emergence of NSFW communities on such a network as Tumblr was ideal
due to Tumblr’s structure of anonymity and pseudonymity. Users could upload
any content they desired with hardly having any offline consequences or the
visibility of the user’s actions on her non-anonymous online platforms such as
Facebook or Instagram. The presentation of self is territorially bound. This
applying to both offline and online communities that individuals engage in. For
example, an individual would act differently in a family environment compared to
one with friends. The family environment would perhaps be more formal and
controlled compared to a context where the individual is out for drinks with her
close friends. This is also applying to individuals’ online accounts. On Facebook

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for example, due to the person having their name displayed would, therefore,
act formally while on Tumblr where they are using a pseudonym the user would
feel less pressured to act the way they do on Facebook due to their content not
being able to be traced back to their offline and other online presences.
Therefore, the way a user presents oneself would rely on the context she is
engaging in. (Nagel & Frith, 2015). Relying on this theory, users who engage/
engaged in the Tumblr NSFW community could have a different persona in the
offline world or on another non-anonymous of pseudonymity platform.
Tiindenberg (2019) in her studies concluded that some of the users within the
Tumblr NSFW community included “parents, students, teachers, office
managers, librarians, lawyers, or scientists off Tumblr.” This challenges the usual
ideas and stereotypes of society towards such members of the NSFW
community, to be perverts or sex workers. NSFW community was therefore for
everyone who shared similar interests with the community behind the hashtag.

Tumblr was an ideal and popular network amongst the online NSFW community.
It allowed pornographic content on its platforms, in order to be inclusive of all
communities and provide a chaotic environment for these communities to grow
in. This lead to a variety of content available for Tumblr users. Fandoms and
communities emerged around themes and interest, ranging from photography to
Harry Potter fandom to pornography. As multiple previous users expressed,
there was a community and fandom for everything. Katrin Tiinderberg in 2019
further explains the feeling of the entrance into Tumblr as “I found it like a pot of
gold at the end of the rainbow.” The NSFW community due to Tumblr’s Terms
and Conditions and its goal to be exclusive of all platforms could thrive on
Tumblr. Members were able to connect and express their kinks and ideas in a
community where they could connect with other users who were interested in
the same themes and ideas. As sex is not frequently talked about outside of
online environments, Tumblr created a safe platform, where through a hashtag a
community was able to create a sense of belonging to marginalised users who
could not discuss their ideas and self-identity towards their sexuality before. As
one of the research participants of Tiindenberg explains, “‘I was desperate for
community, as a queer, non-monogamous, kinky, feminist woman, I had always
felt alone, and on Tumblr I found a language to express myself and it made me
feel more secure about my identities’. Furthermore, NSFW communities are
more than just regular porn, in the sense that the users posting to the hashtag
would create sexual images and videos themselves, not being afraid of society’s
expectations of what a pornography actor must act and look like. Instead of
curvy, yet skinny, Caucasian, blue-eyed girls, users shared images of
themselves, even if they were fatter, darker, or had different body forms opposite
to standard society’s beauty expectations. As stated by Ori Schwarz in 2010
“Online publication only empowers the photographers, giving them control over
the representation of their own life.” in the NSFW community this was statement
could be applied to as the users posting would do it for their own empowerment
and to show their own representation. A statement that was made by saying
‘yes I am different, but I am beautiful’. The community formed as users would
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first see the other member’s body and sexual fantasies and desires and could
message them anonymously or reblog their images with a comment attached to
it. People in such a community felt closer, forming close relationships due to
their share of experiences.

RIP THE “OLD TUMBLR”

Fast forward to December 2018, Tumblr announced the banning of “‘photos,
videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples,
and any content [ …] that depicts sex acts’” (Tumblr, 2018). In order to enforce
the new restrictions, Tumblr has ‘improved’ their algorithms which worked in
order to detect images that contain the banned imagery described above. The
ban undoubtedly brought controversies in the Tumblr communities where nudity
was a form of self-expression including the NSFW community. It came with
great disappointment that the platform which previously would praise itself for
being inclusive of all, reject certain communities that lived and connected on the
platform. The ban was however in response to a greater issue, child
pornography. Unfortunately, due to Tumblr’s lack of control, censorship,
anonymous and pseudonym structure such an abusive and extremist
community to form was also ideal and convenient.

Tumblr however, had controversies regarding pornographic content on its
platform before the porn-ban regarding the Apple phone application store, App
Store. Due to Tumblr’s high levels of content including nudity and pornography,
App Store removed the application from its stores as it did not align with their
App Store Review Guidelines, which excludes the promotion of apps which
includes pornography (Griffin, 2018). As stated by the App Store policy, “To
prevent abuse, […] Apps with user-generated content or services that end up
being used primarily for pornographic content, […] do not belong on the App
Store and may be removed without notice.” (Developer. Apple, 2020). To resolve
these issues, Tumblr has removed all illegal content including NSFW content on
its platforms (Wired, 2018). Not short after, Tumblr has further restricted its
content and announced the ban of nudity which went beyond just the
censorship over illegal content.

On the 3rd of December 2018, Tumblr’s Staff account announced through a text
post titled ‘A better, more positive Tumblr’ the changes which it will implement
with the CEO signing the post off. To say the least, the responses from Tumblr
users were aggressive and disappointed with many seeking out new platforms
and writing sudden emotional responses blaming Tumblr for their loss of support
towards certain communities. Many users noting that this might be the end of
Tumblr ‘RIP Tumblr’ and that the platform has become ‘not inclusive of all
communities’ (Byron, 2019). Only a small majority of the users agreeing with
Tumblr’s decision with many also concluding that the ban is for the site’s
financial benefit. Blaming the staff of being corrupt towards advertising
companies after it has been difficult for Tumblr to seek advertisers due to the

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high levels of pornographic and nude content. Their ban from the App Store also
decreased their revenue due to their discoverability being decreased.

Furthermore, Tumblr Staff posts regarding the ban often used words which
implicated that both the users and the staff were in this together, that Tumblr as
a corporation supported and wanted the best for communities by supporting
their creativity and their self-expression freedom. However, they continued to
reinforce the ban of nudity and the flagging of the microblogs which were aimed
at the NSFW community and others affected by the ban. Certain users
highlighted older controversies of the platform regarding Nazi and other
extremist blogs including bot accounts that staff failed to respond to. These
users concluded that the Tumblr staff has been “lazy” and discriminating
towards the communities which do not engage in illegal content. Furthermore,
arguing that, instead of only removing the illegal content from the site Tumblr, is
discriminating and not living up to the ideology behind the social media platform
which previously stated that the platform is inclusive of all interests and themes.
These users felt that Tumblr did not address the issues, but simply swept it
under the carpet. “This is like setting your house on fire to deal with termites.”
one Tumblr user concluded (Byron, 2019).

The porn ban has extended to flag blogs and posts which were not in correlation
with the NSFW tag or content. Images depicting, for instance, ancient Roman
nude statues were also flagged and removed. This caused frustration amongst
other communities online. These communities also felt a loss of freedom of self-
expression and showed criticism towards Tumblr by not living up to their
standard purpose of being inclusive of all.

SEARCH FOR NEW PLATFORMS

As predicted by certain users, Tumblr indeed lost a majority of their visitors,
statistics showing that about a fifth of its users have deserted the platform.
Visits have “fell from 521 million in December to 437 million in
January” (Cuthbertson, 2018).

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The graph created by The Independent news platform in correlation with data
analytics firm, SimilarWeb shows the increased drop in users since the
December 2018 ban. Tumblr users also aimed to reduce the number of active
users on Tumblr in order for the platform to reintroduce NSFW content by the
“log-off” protest which accounted for the fall in the numbers. However, Tumblr
did not change their Terms of Service and still report and monitor NSFW content
on its platform. This raises the question regarding which platforms did the
NSFW community move into? With many users trying with Twitter and Reddit,
other forms of alternative social media platforms such as Pillowfort,
Dreamwidth, and Bdsmlr (created especially for NSFW community of Tumblr)
have also emerged. It is hard to say exactly which social media platforms did the
Tumblr NSFW community emerge on; Reddit is another platform popularly
known for containing NSFW content on its platforms. The most popular one is
the subreddit r/gonewild where Redditors are able to upload their naked selfies
and experiences “comment on other’s photos, vote on other’s comments and
photos, and send private messages to other community members.” (Lloyd,
2016) It does limit the content compared to a Tumblr blog which is more
personalised and more narrowed down to kinks and interests, Reddit provides
the basic content sharing abilities similar to Tumblr. It is just a suggestion that
some parts of the NSFW community emerged onto Reddit and their NSFW
subreddits.

CONCLUSION

Tumblr has provided a safe place for the NSFW communities which felt
discriminated and lonely without the presence of online communities. It allowed
a generation of individuals and beyond to self-discover their sexual desires and
their self-identity through nudity and pornographic content. Tumblr was a site
that allowed anonymity and pseudonymity creating a wide range of communities
to thrive on its platform, and was popular for being inclusive of all and free from
strong censorship platform, which unfortunately lead to the rise in illegal content
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on its platform. Furthermore, Tumblr’s regular users concluded that the staff
were “too lazy” or simply too focused on aiming to raise more financial revenue
for Tumblr. Instead of solving the issue from its roots and create technology
which could detect and fight bots, extremist ideas and other illegal content such
as child pornography, Tumblr decided to shut down the NSFW community as a
whole, rejecting and silencing users who had nowhere else to go to, ones which
spent years on their Tumblr blogs, only to come back to the platform to see their
accounts and content flagged and deleted. Tumblr did let down an important
community on its platform which drove visits and a major degree of activity on
their sites. It would be too soon to announce that Tumblr is dead (a statement
that was often made by users) due to Tumblr still containing active users,
however, Tumblr is often not talked about outside of the platform itself, making it
a regular but not as widely used social media platform. Instead of calling Tumblr
dead or largely inactive, it can be concluded that it is now the home of different
and new emerging communities that align with the Terms and Conditions which
govern the reformed Tumblr social media network.

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