Don't count on Tumblr ever reversing its porn ban. The microblogging service is keeping it in place to avoid sparking a crackdown from credit card companies and Apple.
“The casually porn-friendly era of the early internet is currently impossible,” says Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic, which acquired Tumblr from Verizon in 2019 and also owns WordPress.
Tumblr recently introduced a new Community Labels function that can help users "fully express themselves while also having control over what they encounter on their dashboard." This prompted some to speculate Tumblr was close to lifting the porn ban it put in place in 2018. But in a post on Wednesday, Mullenweg explains why the “go nuts, show nuts” approach Tumblr was once known for clashes with today’s internet age.
“Credit card companies are anti-porn,” he says, citing how both Visa and Mastercard stopped accepting payments on Pornhub after the adult video site was found hosting child sexual abuse videos. As a result, Mullenweg is concerned that if Tumblr permits porn back on the platform, it’ll get caught up in some controversy that’ll force Visa and Mastercard to crack down on both Tumblr and WordPress.
“Whatever crypto-utopia might come in the coming decades, today if you are blocked from banks, credit card processing, and financial services, you’re blocked from the modern economy,” he says.
Mullenweg also points to Apple, which briefly pulled the Tumblr app from the iOS App Store in November 2018 for hosting child sexual abuse content. Weeks later, Tumblr decided to ban all porn on the service.
Mullenweg is concerned Tumblr could face a repeat of 2018 if the porn ban is lifted. “Today 40% of our signups and 85% of our page views come from people on mobile apps, not on the web,” he says, later adding: “If Apple permanently banned Tumblr from the App Store, we’d probably have to shut the service down. If you want apps to allow more adult content, please lobby Apple.”
“Aside: Why do Twitter and Reddit get away with tons of super hardcore content? Ask Apple, because I don’t know,” he adds.
The other problem has to do with non-consensual porn and other illegal content slipping onto Tumblr if the ban is removed. Such material could trigger a government crackdown or result in lawsuits. Mullenweg adds: “Tumblr has no way to go back and identify the featured persons or the legality of every piece of adult content that was shared on the platform and taken down in 2018, nor does it have the resources or expertise to do that for new uploads.”
At the same time, allowing adult content on a site can also cause prospective investors to flee. “Most traditional investors won’t fund primarily adult businesses, and may not even be allowed to by their LP agreements,” Mullenweg says.
Hence, Automattic’s CEO believes operating an adult content website in today’s age is incredibly difficult. “If you wanted to start an adult social network in 2022, you’d need to be web-only on iOS and side load on Android, take payment in crypto, have a way to convert crypto to fiat for business operations without being blocked,” he says.
Nevertheless, he hopes an adult content social network will emerge to fill in the void left by Tumblr’s porn ban. "It may already exist and I don’t know about it. They’ll have an uphill battle under current regimes, and if you think that’s a bad thing please try to change the regimes. Don’t attack companies following legal and business realities as they exist," Mullenweg adds.