it's just skin

I have seen many petitions flying around and have signed some myself. However, the main issue isn’t tumblr, the App Store, or even Verizon’s wish to monitize ad space.

The issue is the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA) packaged set of bills. These bills were passed in April 2018 in US Congress, where websites are now liable for their content posted by 3rd parties - and can be sued if someone uses their website to solicit sex.

There’s been articles on this for a while, but they have gotten no where near as much publicity as needed - especially because it was a US bill that was passed rather than an international one. However, the effect it has internationally is widespread. No matter where you are, if you are an internet user, these bills WILL affect you.

It has directly affected websites and platforms such as Craigslist, Reddit, Microsoft, Instagram, etc., and is now affecting websites like Tumblr, Facebook, and more than likely Twitter and other platforms soon. The terms and conditions of these sites are very unlikely to change much if at all after they change to meet the current guidelines. It has affected third party users and has even been reported to have affected police in a negative way. The majority of articles on the bill are not written with positivity towards it, and it has been a controversial bill since the beginning.

This issue is not isolated to Tumblr, and even if you leave this website and switch to another, the rules will be similar or will soon be so. If you’ve been here for a long time - sure, open up some other accounts. However, I wouldn’t be so eager to jump ship - you’ll end up in the same waters.

FOSTA/SETSA has compromised section 230 of the 1996 CDA (Communications and Decency Act), which is known to have been the section that has given us the internet we have today by being a major part of internet freedom and protecting freedom of speech and expression online (by protecting hosts from being ultimately liable for third party content). There is speculation that in the future there will be more attempts made to make more acceptions or “poke holes” in section 230.

This packaged bill is what needs to be targeted by internet users internationally, and especially by US citizens as it is the US government who has put this into law. Due to lack of knowledge about this bill, previous petitions did not meet the required amount of attention. This bill is not only directly affecting tumblr, but is affecting the internet as a whole and it’s time to focus on the root of the cause.

In Summary:

THIS ISSUE IS NOT ISOLATED TO TUMBLR.

The adult content ban by Tumblr is NOT caused by the website curators or the Apple App Store.

The main cause of the adult content ban is NOT Verizon trying to monitize ad space, but requirements by the US FOSTA/SESTA combined bill.

FOSTA/SESTA has poked a hole in the 1996 CDA, section 230 which protects web hosts from being liable by content posted by 3rd parties.

Now, websites will be liable and can be sued for content posted by their users, notably in relation to the solicitation of sex.

It is speculated that further attempts will he made to break down parts of section 230.

Although it is a US Bill, it affects the entire World Wide Web. This new joint bill has directly impacted several other websites and continues to do so.

Due to lack of public knowledge, previous petitions did not meet requirements.

FOSTA/SESTA repeal needs to be the main focus by tumblr users and social networking sites as a whole.

So, what can be done?

Read this tweet, and thread from twitter user Aditya Mukerjee (@chimeracoder) for more information on what you can do, and more information about what is going on.

Some good news, I’ve been talking to two developers now and got them working together, we just had a meeting with the guys behind an existing large (millions of users) site similar to Tumblr, with a vibrant and open-minded community, and more importantly, it has open-minded owners who believe in free speech. They think we can get something done here to rescue the whole community.

I’m not allowed to reveal the site name yet. I can tell you it’s mainstream, open to everyone, open-minded and welcoming. (It’s not WordPress or any site owned by Facebook or Twitter. It’s not Pillowfort, that’s in closed beta. It’s not Ello, that’s mainly for artists. It’s not kinkspace or fetlife, those are too specialist. It’s not jux, that seems to be closed. It’s not Soup, that seems still in development and too small.)

One of the reasons for delaying the announcement for next few days is they don’t want a “land grab” where people take the names of current popular Tumblr users over there (cyber squatting). So they are looking at ways for existing Tumblr users to keep the same names on the new site.

More info over the days to come.

The plan is, broadly:

1. By December 9th, announcement of the new site and how to secure your username there

2. By December 10th, an online tool for bloggers to copy their existing content to the new site automatically, with the same tags and captions.

3. Bloggers will need to copy their content across between December 10th and December 17th if they want to use the automatic tool.

4. My understanding is that after December 17th there will be no public access to any “flagged” posts on Tumblr, but the original poster will still be able to see the flagged post (for a short time at least). Therefore, the original poster may still be able to manually download a post to their own PC or phone, after December 17th, and manually upload it to the other site. But if you have lots of posts that will take a long time, it will be better to use the automatic tool before December 17th.

Please understand that these dates are approximate and may change for technical or other reasons.

There may be a few rough edges or not so perfect looking site design on the transfer tool. Everyone is doing their best. The main goal here is to help as many people as possible preserve access to their content, in the short space of time Tumblr has allowed us, and preserve as much as possible of the Tumblr community spirit somewhere new.

The new site will cater for photo, GIF, text and html posts. It will not offer video and audio posts, due to cost reasons - maybe in future, but for now you will need to preserve video and audio content yourself in some other place.

If your Tumblr blog has a mixture of original content and reblogs, or all reblogs, all of that can be copied over to the new site. Reblogs will become “your” original content if nobody else posted them yet, otherwise they will be shown as reblogs. The devs are looking at ways to preserve attribution of reblogs back to the original Tumblr poster, if that person also moves to the new site.

Important: your Likes cannot be copied from Tumblr to the new site. You will have to go find the same posts again on the new site, and like them afresh.

(Similarly, existing reblog comments, asks, messages and other user interaction on Tumblr cannot be copied to the new site - that’s just too much to do, in the short time available.)

If you want to preserve any of your existing Liked posts on Tumblr, you will need to either: (1) download the post to your own PC, or: (2A) reblog it now to your own Tumblr blog, and then (2B) use the automatic tool, before December 17th, to move your whole Tumblr blog across to the new site.

If you have Liked a lot of posts here on Tumblr, the gridllr.com webapp should be able to help you do steps 1 and 2A quickly, I mean download or reblog.

(Someone complained to me today about the appearance of Gridllr on a phone. It’s best to use Gridllr on a PC, Mac or Tablet with a large screen.)

If you have liked a post here on Tumblr and the original poster decides to delete it, or even to delete their entire blog, some time before December 17th, then that post will be permanently lost. So if you want to be sure to preserve any of your Liked posts, you should best download or reblog as soon as possible. If it’s reblogged to your own blog it is safe from deletion, at least for next few days.

Keith and Gram