Recent Changes and My Thoughts
Yo what up, it's ya boi, back after years of inactivity and lurking just in time to watch the end of an age as the very definition of what this site is or what is considered "acceptable self-expression" is about to be forever altered, and I'd argue for the worse. I get it, child pornography is a serious issue and an absolutely horrid thing that shouldn't be tolerated anywhere, and it's pretty hard to curate, especially on a site like this. But in the name of fairness and preserving individual freedom and liberty and expression, I think that the only correct thing to do is continue to fight that fight and only punish wrongdoers, not an overkill mass ban on anything that could be potentially harmful, regardless of whether or not it is, removing the burden of curation from the staff at the expense of all of the innocents who've done nothing wrong. I can't help but think of all of the NSFW artists who got as far as they did simply by harmlessly exploring their fascination with sex acts and depicting them that will now be completely shut down and erased. All of the blogs that have gone inactive will have their work erased with no backup or archive available. I can't help but think of all of the sex workers who will have their livelihoods affected by this change. I can't help but think of all of the completely innocent people who have their posts automatically and incorrectly and unjustly censored because of the overkill censorship devices being trained to ban first and fine-tune later. I can't help but think of all of the people that we've ALREADY seen affected by the pre-staging for this change, with informational and helpful and even safety-centric content and even entire tags such as surgery tags for trans folks getting incorrectly getting hit by the filter. I'm absolutely mortified by the precedent that this change sets, that the burden of proof should be on the individual to fight and struggle to prove that their post is innocent rather than it needing to be proved their post is in violation before being censored. Even worse, the precedent that sex acts and adult content are utterly vile and shouldn't be allowed, without taking into account that sex can also be a tender and intimate and healthy thing that is completely natural and has nothing wrong about it, or that exploring it can be entirely innocent, or that it can be a genuine expression of love, not just a lewd and vile topic. It sets a precedent that sex is to be painted in a negative light, rather than a positive one. It sets the precedent that even in cases of people drawing sex acts as a form of self-expression or exploring the topic, or people demonstrating sex acts for safety purposes, or people showing sex acts in a healthy way, that it's not okay. Given that before this whole issue with the app store and sudden pressure by Apple, Tumblr was okay with making adult content 18+ and leaving it at that, punishing unacceptable content on a case by case basis, I'd argue it sets the precedent that eventually, if wrongdoers cause you enough struggle, it's perfectly acceptable to sacrifice your ideals and the liberties of the innocents to ease your own personal burden of fighting them and their heinous actions, which is essentially giving them a massive victory in my eyes, if easing your personal burdens is as pyrrhic a victory as that. And last but certainly not least, by Tumblr changing as radically as this as soon as Apple applied the pressure by removing the app from the app store, this change sets the precedent that it's perfectly acceptable to compromise yourself and change and bow to the will of those stronger than you simply because of their might alone, no matter what you're sacrificing. Tumblr says that they've been thinking about these changes and removing adult content for a long time, but let's be realistic, that's just corporate-speak to save face. No corporation would readily outright admit they're doing something because they feel forced to. The fact that they've been content to keep adult content restricted behind 18+ filters while fighting child porn and the like, as well as the fact that they felt the need to address child pornography in their statement and that this change comes right on the heels of their removal from the app store is all the proof I and I believe anyone should need to see that they're simply lampshading and trying to preserve their image. If simply being removed from the iOS app store, even though their site can still be accessed on Android, computer, and even iPhones that still have the app installed (such as I am doing presently), is all it takes for them to compromise their ideals and sacrifice our ability to express ourselves, explore topics and share information as we please without being harmful, make certain non-harmful professions completely unviable, forcibly define our perception of a completely healthy and natural subject, place the burden of struggle on us, and even go so far as to demonstrate that powerful people can get what they want by bullying other people and applying pressure and that standing up for yourself and the people that trust you and place their faith in you isn't worth it, then I don't believe Tumblr is a platform that deserves the patronage of anyone. Out of respect for oneself, the other members of the community, and a basic set of values and beliefs such as the freedom to act in whatever way one sees fit provided it isn't harmful, I don't believe Tumblr nor the staff that manage it deserve our patronage or support. I do sympathize with their plight. I know it must be difficult to go up against a foe as large as Apple and to ensure that only wrongdoers are punished on such a large scale, but I don't believe compromising yourself and caving to pressure and refusing to fight for what's right is the correct response. To that end, as a form of protest, I can only think of two viable options. One would be to preserve and archive as much of the content that's to be removed as possible, to upload as much content that could get potentially flagged as possible, whether fairly or unfairly flagged, and contest every single claim to drain their resources, and to reupload flagged content but altered and transformed to circumvent the algorithm. The other, which I'm personally going to exercise and would strongly urge everyone else to as well, would be to completely abandon this site. I know, I should probably suggest an alternative place, but with the wide variety of reasons people use Tumblr I don't think one site would fit all. But by abandoning the site due to these changes, it would send a message that this kind of behavior isn't acceptable. If they're so concerned about potentially losing users from their removal from the iOS app store that they'd radically change their site, it shows that maintaining a large userbase is important to them. Let's demonstrate that losing a potential amount of userbase growth and accessibility isn't worth spitting all over the existing and loyal userbase they already have that has placed their trust and faith in them to represent their interests and protect and fight for the community that has formed along with basic fundamental ideals and decency. So with that being said, I don't really have much more to say. I suppose I'll take my leave now. I hope to see things change for the better, but if not, I hope to see you all again somewhere else. Somewhere better. Farewell.
