FanNationDaily

A few weeks ago, a small but higher-than-normal number of accounts were mistakenly suspended. The suspensions were quickly reversed, but our response wasn't good enough, and we want to say more.

We're sorry it took us this long to address this. Trust and safety issues are difficult to discuss publicly, and we can’t share details about specific individuals or how our systems work without exposing Tumblr to bad actors. But caution led us to say too little, too late.

We’ve heard from members of the trans community on Tumblr that they were disproportionately impacted, and that deserves a direct response. According to 3rd party researchers, Tumblr’s userbase has the highest proportion of LGBTQIA+ folks on social media, so it makes sense that when something goes wrong, those communities might feel that disproportionate impact.

One thing we want to emphasize is that we do not moderate people's identities. We moderate behavior. We know that identity shows up across a Tumblr profile in many ways, from followed topics to the flags people put in their bios, and more. However, these signals play no role in how our moderation systems make decisions. We monitor those systems for evidence of bias and take corrective action when we find it.

We understand that the communications sent to affected users, and our broader silence to the community, didn't meet the standard people expect from us. That feedback is fair, and we apologize. We've updated the messaging sent to people impacted by these incidents. We are also overhauling our process with a goal of responding to mistaken suspension appeals within 24 hours, and have instituted an ongoing internal review of how suspensions and appeals are handled.

Going forward, we're committed to finding a better balance: being more transparent with our community about issues that matter, even when we can't share everything.

Tumblr belongs to everyone. We take that seriously, and we intend to earn back your trust. We are not afraid to have tough discussions with you or make updates based on your feedback, though on occasion, it might take some time.

To the people whose accounts were affected, and to the members of our trans community who felt targeted: we are truly sorry.

Before we begin, if someone reaches out to you apologizing for accidentally reporting you and giving you steps to fix that, it is a common scam that we are aware of. All reports are reviewed by a human, so if someone actually accidentally reported you, the report would likely be rejected. If someone like that reaches out to you, or you think someone is pretending to be [tumblr] Staff, please report and block them. Outside of official [tumblr] accounts and our support email, Staff will never message you, reply to your messages, or notify you about changes to your account. Also, [tumblr] will never ask for money besides for Premium subscriptions and what’s sold in TumblrMart.

🌟 New

Our systems now better identify posts and blogs that may contain mature content. Posts that are flagged or labeled as mature can be blurred depending on your mature content settings, and we’ll show a banner if content is filtered from search results based on your settings. Content from blogs you follow won’t be additionally filtered. We know it’s not perfect, and we’re working on that. In the meantime, if any of your posts are misclassified, you can submit an appeal by following the instructions here.

Some of you will see a refreshed post design on Tumblr that makes posts easier to read and lets you tap anywhere on a post to open its page and join the conversation, as part of an experiment to improve how you browse and interact with posts. This change is currently only available to some users on the web.

Post sources added to the original post will now appear below the original post in the reblog chain, rather than at the bottom of the chain.

🛠 Fixed

We fixed an issue that wouldn’t allow the Home unread count to decrease.

We fixed an issue that caused some Android users to see an unskippable ad when opening the app. This bug was present only briefly, and we appreciate everyone who reported it so quickly. If you ever notice something that doesn’t look or feel right, please contact support.

We fixed a bug on Android with the push notifications we’re sending whenever we have a good recommendation for you. You can always tweak your notification settings following these instructions.

🚧 Ongoing

We are aware that folks on the iOS app can no longer Blaze other people’s posts. You can, however, still do this from the meatballs menu on the Web, even in mobile Safari.

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

We’re rolling out enhanced automated detection of mature content on Tumblr for the iOS app and web, following the measures we launched on Android earlier this year.

What’s Changing Our systems now better identify posts and blogs that may contain mature content. Posts that are flagged or labeled as mature could now be blurred depending on your mature content settings, and we’ll show a banner if content is filtered from search results based on your settings. Content from blogs you follow won’t be additionally filtered. Creators can appeal if their content is misclassified.

Why We’re Doing This These updates help make Tumblr safer and more consistent for everyone. They will help protect users, especially younger audiences or anyone else who prefers not to see this content.

Who Is Affected All Tumblr users on iOS and web are now impacted by these changes.

Adjusting Your Experience You are still in control of what content you see on Tumblr, and you can customize it in settings:

Enable “show mature content” in your settings under Content you see.

Review your blog visibility settings to see if your blog has been flagged as mature, which also provides a shortcut to appeal if needed.

For more information on our guidelines, please visit:

Tumblr’s Community Guidelines