The Real Red Flag
Much of the content on this blog has been “flagged”, and by this time tomorrow will be unavailable. I’m not not sure if they’re going to delete the reposts (everything here is a repost - no original content), or if this and many other blogs like it are going to be left as ghost towns, filled with imageless posts that say “This post was removed for failure to meet community guidelines (blah blah blah)…” - we’ll see tomorrow.
This blog is about beautiful images of bodies. I post what I like, which was the wonderful thing about a platform like this. This particular blog is not about overtly sexual content, but the bodies shown here are sexy. There is nudity. Sometimes nudity is sexy (and much of the time it is not), but that does not make it sexual. Many of the images I’ve reblogged here have been as much about beautiful settings and skillful, artistic photography as they are about beautiful bodies.
Making images such as those shown here is a ham-handed approach to supposedly making the Web a safer place. The absence of discernment in Tumblr’s “cleansing” of its site sets a dangerous precedent for the Internet, and for people’s personal freedoms.
This move by Tumblr is reactionary to the signing of FOSTA/SESTA last April. The highly controversial law (its two bills that basically work together toward the same goal) is supposed to reduce sex-trafficking by making websites that somehow promote such activities complicit, and therefore liable, for sex- trafficking. Many sex workers, incidentally, have come out against the bill, which has driven their work underground to very dangerous places.
Certainly this is a terrifying prospect for a site like Tumblr, which is a web community and not a porn site. Their existence could be on the line. Let’s not, however, confuse what this is with what it appears to be.
This sudden shift in Tumblr’s policy regarding content is a CYA move. If they’ve “spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content” as new CEO Jeff D'Onofrio claims, that consideration started when they learned of FOSTA/SESTA - probably at least a year ago, and likely preceding founder David Karp’s exit late last year.
Unfortunately, the problem here is much larger than Tumblr’s decision to stop showing butts, tits, and genetalia. This is about governments using the smoke screen of supposedly protecting people from truly dangerous scourges, such as child pornography and human trafficking, to introduce draconian legislation that will likely carry few real benefits, while costing society freedoms that will be extremely difficult to regain. Don’t bother fighting Tumblr - that battle’s already lost. Fight to repeal FOSTA/SESTA.
