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The Impact of the Tumblr Porn Ban of 2019: An Analysis

I have a love-hate relationship with Tumblr. I have many reasons to thank Tumblr, for being the source of visual knowledge for sexual terminology and acts. I credit Tumblr for guiding me through learning my sexuality. Without Tumblr, I would’ve never stumbled onto queer porn, specifically “wlw porn” (”women loving women porn”). My introduction with queer sex was finding soft porn GIFs which I am not mad about. I think about how lesbian/queer porn is represented outside of the platform like on Pornhub or other general social media sites like Twitter. I did not interact with Pornhub or Twitter until I reached high school, which was intentional for me. I was satisfied with Tumblr as one of my “safe spaces” to connect with the internet. The platform was at it’s peak in 2014, along with Vine, Instagram, and Twitter. Tumblr’s interface was satisfying to me, with the simplistic home page and the ability to code for customizing your account page. It challenged me to research how to code and let me engage with the content I wanted to see, on my own terms. I was able to access information about the LGBTQ community that I would not have been able to learn about from my parents, who never mentioned queerness unless it was to make fun of.

Although I never posted my own content on my page, I would repost stories and like posts that resonated with me. Authors would post about their personal queer attractions and it let me learn self expression, self acceptance, and what self representation looks like for others. It helped me shape my identity in private. I learned that I liked women, and that there was nothing sinful about it. It took me a while to fully process these feelings, where I would have been rejected by my first crush on a girl in 8th grade and I would end up being forced to come out to my parents by senior year of high school. As of 2024, I identify as a bisexual woman. I go by she/they pronouns because I am comfortable being referred to not just what the world perceives me as. Without Tumblr, the journey would not have started at such a crucial time in my development as a young person.

This has led me to now, asking myself many questions regarding this time in my life. During my Wandering Uterus class, where we have discussed sex education for all ages, Tumblr’s impact on my peers and I has been brought up a couple of times. I believe that I mentioned my feelings, which remain mixed. It left me wanting to pursue more information, especially because as a 22 year old woman that is still chronically online, I want to unpack moments of my character development. Plus, I have not consistently engaged with the platform since Tumblr placed a ban on pornography, specifically the nudity of AFAB people. Was Tumblr an actual safe space? What effect did Tumblr’s porn ban have on other people? What are the negatives and positives of pornography on young adults? What can we learn from Tumblr in terms of creating spaces for people to explore their sexuality and gender? How can we approach online sex education for the youth? Through reading articles discussing thoughts surrounding Tumblr’s porn ban in 2019, the effects of pornography on young adults, and how to approach sex education, I will be learning about the appeal of the platform and how it affected the NSFW and LGBT communities.

When approaching the start of my research, I wanted to learn the specifics about the infamous Tumblr porn ban in 2019. In 2013, Tumblr was sold for $1.1 billion and in 2019, not long after the ban, it was sold for less than $3 million (McNicholl). The web traffic for the site from October 2018 to April 2019 went from 558 million to 376 million globally. This means their traffic dropped to 30% in the months after the ban and crashing down 40% over the next three years. Clearly, the ban saw a massive loss of followers from leaving the platform. This was despite of the app’s return onto the Apple App Store in December 2018. Tumblr was removed from the App Store in November 2018 because child pornography appeared on the site (FastCompany), which was “immediately removed”. Indonesia banned Tumblr because of the existence of pornography (Electronic Frontier Foundation).

In July 2018, there were “a set of controversial bills” that were signed by Trump (during his term as POTUS) intended to aide with cutting down on illegal online sex trafficking. There are two bills, “the House bill known as FOSTA, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and the Senate bill, SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act.” The perspectives of this bill are split, either receiving praise from advocates seeing this as a victory for victims of sex trafficking (Romano) or critiquing it as, “is anti-sex trafficking in theory, but in practice has only led to a single trafficker prosecution in its first three years” and it has been specified as the reason tech companies have been kicking off “consenting online sex workers off their site”. Tumblr’s Director of Platform Engineering David Galbraith negates the bill having an impact on the site’s decision to ban sexually explicit content, "The sole reason these changes are being made on our iOS app is to be more compliant with Apple's App Store Guidelines related to content they classify as 'objectionable,'"(Iovine).

The term objectionable cannot be perceived objectively in this instance, according to Maggie MacDonald, a Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto researching pornography platforms, “It's a very slippery slope, because 'objectionable' can apply to, like, a snuff film…but it can also just apply to almost anything sexual. But it doesn't apply to all things sexual,” The perception of what’s objectionable relies on perspective. For example, there are plenty of misogynistic, homophobic, racist posts online, but it will never be permanently removed because they won’t be perceived as ‘objectionable’ by the white straight men who finance and own these companies. Instead of Tumblr responding to the backlash with instilling changes within the company, they threw a “blanket” ban on sex and nudity over the whole site. Using a filter tool that is ‘over-inclusive’ would end up flagging content that is ‘acceptable’ (Iovine). The company never admitted to what caused their decision, but we can assume that those decisions had something to do with it.

Tumblr’s porn ban could be perceived as an example of how content moderation is handled by these platforms. How does the platform’s decision making shape our social and cultural norms? Well, “content moderation is not standardized and lacks federal oversight,” which I am aware that this is due to social media companies not seeking out a way to moderate content without having to take accountability for their user’s words. Using an automated system to police content puts many online marginalized communities at risk of erasure (Duguay). Because of the Tumblr porn ban, the queer and sex positive communities were left to fend for themselves and find another online space to call home, which has been named “digital nomadism” (McNicoll).

The safer alternative platforms that were created after the Tumblr blanket ban include newTumbl, Cumblr, xstumbl, Sharesome, BDSMLR, and Pillowfort. What made them an alternative to Tumblr? Well, some of these websites created a similar homepage interface and allowed you to import old Tumblr blogs. But they would never reach the peak of Tumblr’s popularity due to their lack of high website visits numbers and their offhand approach to offensive speech on their platforms. For example, a blog called EroticPatriarchy on BDSMLR titled posts with “happy girls know their place” and “Being (g)raped made me support the patriarchy more”(FastCompany). When the average American thinks of where they could find online porn, the most famous option is Pornhub, but this platform is not a safe space for queer people. The ban was the cause for several ethical feminist porn websites, which began to rise in popularity, despite charging a fee for access to their content. Websites like these celebrate consensual sex, inclusivity, gender equality, and body positivity which is not the case for main audience of Pornhub (McNicoll).

The porn ban echoed a downward spiral into online censorship, which aimed to protect marginalized groups but ended up over-policing and hurting many others. This would ruin the organic and special communities that had grown on Tumblr (McNicoll). This loss of home gives these communities no choice but to relocate to porn sites that are not designed with diverse sexuality and gender identities in mind. These temporary homes are not safe, where they are more likely to encounter stigmatized, stereotypical and demeaning representations of women and transgender people (Duguay).

A term that applied to Tumblr was the “queer ecosystem”, coined by Alexander Cho, from UC Irvine, defined as a space that “users circulate porn, flirt, provide support to deal with homophobia as well as advice on coming out…”. Cho found that Tumblr was preferred by queer youth of color as the platform for sharing intimate and personal content. This is compared to Facebook, the original social media platform, that is perceived as the space of “default publicness” (Duguay). Writer and Tumblr user Jonno Revanche said it gave access to “social connections that are otherwise unavailable due to geographic isolation and social anxiety” (Byron). Without Tumblr’s allowance of porn, there is a lack of safe space for queer youth of color to explore their sexuality and gender identity; causing the available depictions of the “alternative sexuality” become “frequently rendered invisible” (Duguay). The “alternative sexuality” consisted of not just LGBTQ porn, but tattooed porn, fetish porn, or fan edits of your favorite characters with their moments of potential sexual tension (Iovine).

Considering all of this information, we need to recognize both sides of the coin. The general stance towards the exposure or exploration of pornography for young adults is not accepted. This is not to say that they are not valid reasons for protecting your children from content that is not moderated efficiently. I decided to seek out research that explained the negative and positive effects of pornography on young adults, and I came up with answers for both sides of the coin.

The American College of Pediatricians published an article in June 2016 titled “The Impact of Pornography on Children”. They claim that the consumption of pornography is linked to “many negative emotional, psychological, and physical health outcomes”. The list of outcomes includes high rates of depression, anxiety, misbehavior (violent behavior), early sexual activity, sexual promiscuity, high risk of teen pregnancy, and a distorted view of heterosexual relationships. Clearly, this article is only considering the argued majority of the population’s sexual orientation. The points they made against pornography use by the youth are charged with the moral beliefs that are carried through sexual health education in the United States. They state this use “often leads to a distorted view of sexuality and its role in fostering healthy personal relationships”, with distortions like amplification of the popularity of sexual activity in the community, the belief that sexual promiscuity is normal and that sexual abstinence is unhealthy. They conclude with saying that these views will cause more difficulty for young people to create and maintain long-lasting, meaningful relationships with the opposite sex which leads to the negative outcomes mentioned previously, along with “overall life dissatisfaction”. Although I understand that pornography does not guarantee positive experiences for everyone, I would encourage that instead of dismissing pornography for its potential negative impact, that we recognize its positive impacts and learn what this could mean for online sex education (Perry).

From the National Library of Medicine is an article titled “Pornography use among adolescents and the role of primary care” which discusses the impact of pornography on sexual health development in adolescents and the role that primary care providers (PCPs) in evaluating the use and providing sexual health education. They explain that although the perception of the consumption of porn by adolescents are viewed negatively, the reality of the matter is more complex. Studies have been affected by the “methodological challenges and cultural bias” that are constantly laced in them, producing research that is “based on correlations, not causations, limiting conclusions that can be drawn from the findings” . They stated that pornography may help adolescents’ sexual development and in turn enhance their sexual relationships and knowledge, working as an educational tool as well as a tool for sexual gratification and an leisure activity. They refer to one study found that when questioning individuals on their opinion of how pornography impacted them, respondents said that it helped them with their sexual confidence because of the exposure to sexual acts that they would not have considered otherwise. Moreover, pornography allowed for experimentation with sexual attraction which is helpful with the identification of sexual orientation and gender identity. The demonstration of sexual acts taught these individuals what they were, increasing their sexual self-confidence. From what I have experienced and what I have found during my research into the communities affected by the blanket ban, I believe that this is what Tumblr provided for LGBTQ youth on the site.

This article proposes a way for primary care providers (PCPs) to intervene in their patient’s sexual health and sexual education. They explain that the exploration of the motivation for pornography use may help PCPs and caregivers to assess their adolescents’ psychosocial needs. They recognize the negative effects, such as the adolescent having a “more advanced pubertal development, minimal caregiver supervision and emotional connection, family conflict, and behavioral problems” and “may engage in pornography use as a way to seek relational or sexual connectedness and/or comfort without any emotional commitment, reducing any fears of rejection or abandonment.” These are valid issues for young adults that can be discovered and addressed through primary care. They found another study found that youth seeking pornography could be used to increase their sense of belonging and decrease feelings of loneliness, as well as to help manage feelings of emotional stress, discomfort, and boredom.

They encourage PCPs to include screening youth for pornography viewing into their regular routine in adolescent health care. With these actions, PCPs could normalize the conversation around sexual health and how it is a form of self-care as a way to reduce feelings of shame around discussing pornography usage. Primary care providers could offer guidance and provide accurate and reliable information. They prefer seeking help from a primary care provider to using the internet for help. This is something that I understand where both sides are coming from, but I believe that in order for primary care providers to be successful in their sexual education, they would need to be well-versed in not just heterosexual sex but in various ways of pleasuring bodies. That is one thing that many primary care providers lack, and it’s the reason why Tumblr was so successful in the first place. Because of the lack of safe spaces in clinical and educational settings, the youth turn to the internet to avoid the shame or confusion they potentially feel towards their own sexual desires (Jhe).

After examining the negative and positive impacts of porn, I want to tie it back into Tumblr. In November 2022, Tumblr announced that they would be allowing nudity back on their website again, in order to “welcome a broader range of expression, creativity, and art on Tumblr, including content depicting the human form (yes, that includes the naked human form)”. But, they also warned that “visual depictions of sexually explicit acts” still remain banned on the platform. So what does this mean for the communities that were forced off the platform because of the ban? Should they return, despite their previous exclusion from a platform that was dominated by them a decade ago? Tumblr CEO, Matt Mullenweg has emphasized that “the casually porn-friendly era of the early internet is currently impossible.” One can argue that this is the right step in the direction of permitting “a more broader range of expression” on the site and returning to the “old Tumblr” (McNicoll). Is the allowance of nudity on the platform enough for Tumblr to return back to its height in preference from the LGBTQ youth?

sources:

“After Tumblr’s NSFW Ban, These Adult Communities Have Come out on Top.” FastCompany, 4 June 2019, www.fastcompany.com/90358305/six-months-after-tumblrs-nsfw-ban-these-kink-communities-are-coming-out-on-top.

Byron, Paul, and Brady Robards. “There’s Something Queer about Tumblr.” The Conversation, 26 Feb. 2024, theconversation.com/theres-something-queer-about-tumblr-73520.

Duguay, Stefanie. “Why Tumblr’s Ban on Adult Content Is Bad for LGBTQ Youth.” The Conversation, 2 May 2024, theconversation.com/why-tumblrs-ban-on-adult-content-is-bad-for-lgbtq-youth-108215.

Iovine, Anna. “The Death of Tumblr Porn Left a Void No Other Site Can Fill.” Mashable, Mashable, 20 Apr. 2022, mashable.com/article/tumblr-adult-content-ban.

Jhe, Grace B, et al. “Pornography Use among Adolescents and the Role of Primary Care.” Family Medicine and Community Health, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Jan. 2023, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9853222/#s3title.

McNicoll, Kayla. “Years on from Tumblr’s Infamous Porn Ban, Where Have Those NSFW Communities Gone?” Happy Mag, 12 Dec. 2022, happymag.tv/tumblr-porn/.

Perry, L. David. “The Impact of Pornography on Children.” American College of Pediatricians, June 2016, acpeds.org/position-statements/the-impact-of-pornography-on-children.

Romano, Aja. “A New Law Intended to Curb Sex Trafficking Threatens the Future of the Internet as We Know It.” Vox, 13 Apr. 2018, www.vox.com/culture/2018/4/13/17172762/fosta-sesta-backpage-230-internet-freedom.

“What Tumblr’s Ban on ‘adult Content’ Actually Did.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, 20 May 2019, www.eff.org/tossedout/tumblr-ban-adult-content.

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Tumblr Porn: A Personal Writing

2014, during the peak of the social media platform named Tumblr. In the beginning of the year, my winter break was ending and along came the dreaded continuation of 7th grade. January always felt like the longest month, many long nights consuming any visual media I could access, which went from the television to the iPhone 5c my parent’s bought me in November for my 13th birthday. It was my very first iPhone, which felt like a total shift in my character because I was known for rocking an Android. But my parents knew how much it would mean to me. I reflect back on middle school, and all I could remember from 7th grade was that it was the first time that I was experiencing anxiety and depression. At the time, I had two friends who were self-harming… and it was the first times that my friends were experiencing similar feelings to mines. Some would message me about it, or I would find out through friends or fellow peers, or through the social media. At the time, my parents had a presence and stance on what social media I could be a part of. What apps got the approval? The ones that I could remember are Kik, Snapchat, Vine, Pinterest, and most importantly, Tumblr.

I cannot remember the exact moment that I decided to make a Tumblr account, but I was aware of it’s existence through my friends and peers. Around this time, I was exposed to the music of One Direction. I knew of their existence from their popular hit, “What Makes You Beautiful” but that came out when I was in elementary school. I was not into that type of pop music for a few reasons: 1. This was not the type of music my parents would ever entertain, as mixed Latinos living in Central Florida. The radio they would play consisted of R&B, Hip Hop/Rap, Dance, Salsa, Reggaeton, etc. 2. I was going through the “I’m not like other girls” phase. I was tired of girls constantly gawking over boys. I wanted to be different. 3. That song was just not good! It was not until I became friends with this one girl that I discovered albums like “Midnight Memories” and “Four”. From listening to their voices and watching to their music videos, I became intrigued with learning about the boys. The narrative and the marketing of who Harry and Zayn are really spoke to my tastes as a young girl.

My research led me to Tumblr, where I approached the One Direction fandom. This community was extensive and active with their following. The ‘fandom’ on Google is defined as, “the state or condition of being a fan of someone or something; the fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc. regarded collectively as a community or subculture.” The One Direction fandom on Tumblr lead me to start my sexual exploration as a young girl.

Was this an intentional choice? This meaning did I intentionally looked for sexually explicit literature, which lead me to sexually explicit content? No, I happen to stumble on it one night. One of my favorite forms of fan-made content became fan stories, fluffy blurbs of romantic scenarios happening with the member of your choice. Reading this was exploratory because of how detailed these stories were. It gave me the ability to experience romance without physically experiencing it. It was unconsciously appealing to my anxious feelings that were budding in me. Middle school was the beginning of the formation of my personality and interests as an individual. I was experiencing newfound independence, possessing a world of unrestricted knowledge at my fingertips.

This was the most accessible form of sex education for me. My parents gave me the best “talk” that they could, but it was left at one conversation. If you ask them today, they will tell you that their children could come to them for “those types of conversations” but who wants to talk to their parent about that? The internet became my guide book into figuring out what made me flushed or excited. During this time, there was a part of me that became delusional and emotional when reading these stories; like Harry was flirting with me or Zayn was cuddling with me. I would search for different authors (with good grammar and a clean format) and go through their master lists to read their titles… There was one story I was reading that was a series that started out as ‘fluff’ and then slowly shifted into the ‘smut’ category. For those who don’t know, smut is defined as, “obscene or lascivious talk, writing, or pictures.” The majority of the authors would place a disclaimer before the story, “rating: 18+… smut, NSFW… If you are younger than 18, scroll past. tags: __” Usually, I would skip them if I saw them but this author in particular did not preface the post with a warning. So as I am reading this smut, I notice that the language is getting more dirty, and I paused to think about this. I felt conscious of my actions, anxious that I would get caught. But I was already reading this, and this was around a time where the concept of sex was still unknown territory for me. I wanted to know the details, to be let in on the secrets before I would even consider enacting on them. So, I decided to read further. In that moment, my perspective of the world would completely shift and would go down a digital spiral.

The forbidden and taboo feeling made me gravitate towards engaging with smut pieces more. Some of these posts would contain GIFs of the celebrity looking at the camera in a sexy way or filmed in a comprising position. They were not directly sexual, but it was suggestive with the tension of the eye or if the angle and lighting were right. I would click on the hashtags, #smut, #NSFW smut, #NSFW with the addition of the celebrity’s name. Scrolling through these hashtags lead me to discovering pornography. I remember how anxious this made me feel, guilty because I knew this was not something I was allowed to look at but curious because I never saw the act happening. Whenever a sex scene would come on in the house, my parents would make us close our eyes, which left bits and pieces of information. During our talk, we were given a light lesson in anatomy and how natural pregnancy happens. There was no talk about the specifics of sex or genitalia, which I figured out on my own. I could not resist indulging in this content because I had the answers in front of me. I was able to educate myself on my own, which looking back on still leaves me wondering if it was a good thing or not.