BAN ON TUMBLR PORN WILL DESTROY COMMUNITY, DECIMATE SEX WORKERS INCOME
So Tumblr has instituted a porn ban which will essentially knock out a HUGE portion of its users’ content. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ve never opened the app. But regardless of what you think about porn, or “porn,” or the erotic, this will change a few things. The Tumblr Porn ban will use automated monitors, for one. So the system could “see” your finger in a picture as a penis. Those dots on a shirt could be nipples. You get the idea. But a lot of sex workers have profiles on Tumblr as well. They have independence and more safety as a result. But their main access to clients is pretty much gone. That just might decimate their income and safety as well.
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TUMBLR USERS SCRAMBLE TO EDIT YEARS OF POSTINGS, FUTURE UNCERTAIN
One such entrepreneur is 26-year-old Lily Fox. In recent days, she’s been going over every post she’s made over five years. That means she’s been deleting every nude photo, a huge task. But she’s hasn’t deleted relatively pedestrian images. Those are of her wearing lingerie, kind of like Victoria’s Secret. But the site’s automated system doesn’t like those either. So Lily is pretty concerned about her business. And since she’s her business, it’s a little scary. She has built 50,000 followers and her profile allowed her to do sex work. But no, she’s not a working girl. Tumblr allowed her to make a living selling cam shows and online photos.
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TUMBLR BAN GOES INTO EFFECT ON DEEPLY IRONIC DATE
But with the new policy, she says, “I’m hoping it won’t decimate my income.” But the new policy will do more than that. A community has formed on Tumblr. And one section of that community are “porn” posters as well as browsers. We’re talking a lot of businesses and a culture that grew out of the platform itself. But now the platform is killing it all. And the most disturbing part? The change is official on December 17th. But that is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.
