Tumblr
Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.
Type of business
February 2007[1]
New York City, U.S.
Matt Mullenweg (CEO)[2]
411 (as of June 2017)[1]
- Yahoo! Inc. (2013–2017)
- Oath (2017–2019)
- Verizon Media (2019)
- Automattic (2019–present)
Criticism
Copyright issues
Tumblr has received criticism for copyright violations by participating bloggers;[107] however, Tumblr accepts Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take-down notices.[108] Tumblr's visual appeal has made it ideal for photoblogs that often include copyrighted works from others that are re-published without payment.[109] Tumblr users can post unoriginal content by "Reblogging", a feature on Tumblr that allows users to re-post content taken from another blog onto their own blog with attribution.[107][110]
Security
Tumblr has been forced to manage spam and security problems. For example, a chain letter scam in May 2011 affected 130,000 users.[111]
On December 3, 2012, Tumblr was attacked by a cross-site scripting worm deployed by the internet troll group Gay Nigger Association of America. The message urged users to harm themselves and criticized blogging in general.[112]
User interface changes
In 2015, Tumblr faced criticism by users for changes to its reblog mechanisms. In July 2015, the system was modified so that users cannot remove or edit individual comments by other users when reblogging a post; existing comments can only be removed all at once. Tumblr staff argued that the change was intended to combat "misattribution", though this move was met by criticism from 'ask blogs' and "RP blogs', which often shortened long chains of reblogs between users to improve readability. In September 2015, Tumblr changed how threads of comments on reblogged posts are displayed; rather than a nested view with indentations for each post, all reblogs are now shown in a flat view, and user avatars were also added. The change was intended to improve the legibility of reblogs, especially on mobile platforms, and complements the inability to edit existing comments. Although some users had requested such a change to combat posts made illegible by extremely large numbers of comments on a reblogged post, the majority of users (even those who had requested such a change) criticized the new format. The Verge was also critical of the changes, noting that it was cleaner, but made the site lose its "nostalgic charm".[113][114]
Userbase behaviour
While Tumblr's userbase has generally been received as accommodating people from a wide range of ideologies and identities, a common point of criticism is that attitudes from users on the site stifle discussion and discourse. In 2015, members of the Steven Universe fandom drove an artist to the point of attempting suicide over their artwork, in which they drew characters thin that are typically seen as being 'fat' in the show.[115] In 2018, Kotaku reporter Gita Jackson described the site as a 'joyless black hole', citing how the website's design and functionality led to 'fandoms spinning out of control', as well as an environment which inhibited discussion and discourse.[116]
Promotion of self-harm and suicide
In February 2012, Tumblr banned blogs that promote or advocate suicide, self-harm and eating disorders (pro-ana).[117]
The suicide of a British teenager, Tallulah Wilson, raised the issue of suicide and self-harm promotion on Tumblr as Wilson was reported to have maintained a self-harm blog on the site. A user on the site is reported to have sent Wilson an image of a noose accompanied by the message: "here is your new necklace, try it on." In response to the Wilson case, Maria Miller, the UK's minister for culture, media, and sport, said that social media sites like Tumblr need to remove "toxic" self-harm content.[118][119]
Searching terms like "depression", "anxiety", and "suicide" on Tumblr now brings up a PSA page directing the user to resources like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, The Trevor Project, the National Eating Disorders Association, and RAINN, as well as an option to continue to the search results.[120]
There are concerns of some Tumblr posts glorifying suicide and depression among young people.[121]
Politics
In February 2018, BuzzFeed published a report claiming that Tumblr was utilized as a distribution channel for Russian agents to influence American voting habits during the 2016 presidential election.[122]
Despite policies forbidding hate speech, Tumblr has been noted for hosting content from Neo-Nazis and white supremacists.[123] In May 2020, Tumblr announced that it will remove reblogs of terminated hate speech posts, specifically Nazi and white supremacist content.[124]
Censorship
Several countries have blocked access to Tumblr because of pornography, religious extremism or LGBT content. These countries include China,[125] Indonesia, Kazakhstan[126] and Iran.[127] In February 2016, the Indonesian government temporarily blocked access to Tumblr within the country because the site hosted pages that carried pornography. The government shortly reversed its decision to block the site and said it had asked Tumblr to self-censor its pornographic content.[128]
Notable matters
On October 21, 2011, then-U.S. President Barack Obama created a Tumblr account.[135]
In late 2015, a user on the website went viral after allegedly having collected human bones at a graveyard, sparking a controversy known as "Boneghazi" (a portmanteau of bone + Benghazi). The user, from New Orleans, Louisiana, had offered to share the human bones reportedly procured from Holt Cemetery by making a post in a Facebook group known as the "Queer Witch Collective". The Facebook post was later re-posted to Tumblr by another user, and the account from Facebook was traced to a profile on Tumblr due to the profile pictures matching.[136] In January 2016, the user's home was searched by law enforcement, where they found 11 bones and four teeth.[137][138][139]