The Tumblr Ban

If you’ve ever wondered why there are so many annoying people on Twitter, you’ve got Tumblr to thank for that. Tumblr, the microblogging site that reigned supreme in the 2010s, was like Facebook’s cool cousin who has blue hair and goes to art school. It was the cradle of identity formation for lonely teens and adults, and it was also a happy home to lots and lots of porn. Tumblr’s NSFW content made it a search-engine-friendly way to consume porn without your mom finding out. But its alternative edge made it an easy victim to much more powerful companies - which is why, in this episode, Hannah and Maia discuss the Tumblr porn ban and its consequences on society. Tangents including but not limited to: the “free nipples for sale” movement, Hannah’s Addison Rae addiction, and Maia’s misanthropic middle school blog: “Who the Poo Cares”.

Hannah's Tumblr: https://acidrain-e.tumblr.com/

Maia's Tumblr: https://takemybadge.tumblr.com/

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Leah Collins, “How Tumblr went from a $1 billion Yahoo payday to a $3 million fire sale.” CNBC (2022). https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/15/how-tumblr-went-from-1-billion-yahoo-payday-to-3-million-fire-sale.html

Josh Holiday “David Karp, founder of Tumblr, on realizing his dream” The Guardian (2012). https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jan/29/tumblr-david-karp-interview

Michael J. de la Merced, Nick Bilton and Nicole Perlroth “Yahoo to Buy Tumblr for $1.1 Billion.” The New York Times (2013) .https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/technology/yahoo-to-buy-tumblr-for-1-1-billion.html

Allison McCrcken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, Indira Neill Hoch “You Must Be New Here: An Introduction” a tumblr book: platform and culture, Chapter 1, (2020).

Chris Isidore, “Yahoo buys Tumblr, promises to not ‘screw it up’”, (20/05/13), CNN Buisness. https://money.cnn.com/2013/05/20/technology/yahoo-buys-tumblr/?iid=EL

Sarah Perez, “Tumblr’s Adult Fare Accounts for 11.4% Of Site’s Top 200K Domains, Adult Sites Are Leading Category of Referrals” (20/05/2013), Tech Crunch https://techcrunch.com/2013/05/20/tumblrs-adult-fare-accounts-for-11-4-of-sites-top-200k-domains-tumblrs-adult-fare-accounts-for-11-4-of-sites-top-200k-domains-adults-sites-are-leading-category-of-referrals/

Shannon Liao, “Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th” (03/12/2018), The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/3/18123752/tumblr-adult-content-porn-ban-date-explicit-changes-why-safe-mode

Shannon Liao, “Tumblr’s adult content ban means the death of unique blogs that explore sexuality” (06/12/2018), The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/6/18124260/tumblr-porn-ban-sexuality-blogs-unique

Community Guidelines, Tumblr. https://www.tumblr.com/policy/en/community

Jason Koelber and Samantha Cole, “Apple Sucked Tumblr Into Its Walled Garden, Where Sex Is Bad” (03/12/2018), Motherboard. https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3mjxg/apple-tumblr-porn-nsfw-adult-content-banned

Kyle Chayka, “How Tumblr became popular for being obsolete” The New Yorker (2022). https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/how-tumblr-became-popular-for-being-obsolete

Ned Hepburn, “I’ll Tumblr For Ya” Vice (2009) https://www.vice.com/en/article/aeem3a/tumblr-david-karp-interview

Allison McCracken, “Tumblr Youth Subcultures and Media Engagement” Cinema Journal, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Fall 2017) https://www.jstor.org/stable/44867867

Danah Boyd, “Am I a Blogger?” Biography, Vol. 38, No. 2, ONLINE LIVES 2.0 (Spring 2015) https://www.jstor.org/stable/24570362

Photomatt (tumblr’s CEO), “Why ‘Go Nuts, Show Nuts’ Doesn’t Work in 2022”, Tumblr (2022) https://www.tumblr.com/photomatt/696629352701493248/why-go-nuts-show-nuts-doesnt-work-in-2022

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