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Tumblr's Adult Content Policy
Dec. 23rd, 2018 02:23 amI have a lot of thoughts on Tumblr's choice to change its TOS in such a draconian way. This is not even considering their ridiculous attempt to manage this all with a rudimentary AI they expect the users to do the job of teaching (for free while we're being used and abused by them as a product no less!).
Their new policy on 'Adult Content' is as follows:
"Adult Content. Don't upload images, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples — this includes content that is so photorealistic that it could be mistaken for featuring real-life humans (nice try, though). Certain types of artistic, educational, newsworthy, or political content featuring nudity are fine. Don’t upload any content, including images, videos, GIFs, or illustrations, that depicts sex acts. For more information about what this guideline prohibits and how to appeal decisions about adult content, check out our help desk."
This policy bans both sexual content and nudity that's not deemed sufficiently 'artistic' or 'educational' or 'newsworthy'. But how would anyone even make those kinds of determinations? Even if they weren't using an AI to determine this, do any of us trust Tumblr staff to make these kinds of determinations? I certainly don't.
Here's the thing--I generally prefer not to see nudity or images with sexual content. But there's nothing inherently bad or wrong about either. And if Tumblr itself actually cared about its users, they wouldn't have designed the site in a way that's, for example, constantly shoving content from users you don't follow in your face (and turning this on by default, and not giving a way to opt-out) and de-emphasizing the use of tags in their search and not having fine-grained privacy options. I think these are all examples of the way the Tumblr interface is itself designed to ignore consent.
I think it's a problem to buy into American social norms that vilify the body and human sexuality in the name of stopping child predators or other sexual abusers. I also think it is extremely important not to associate innocuous expressions of sexuality or even just neutral displays of the human body with such awful acts.
I think it's vital not to view false positives as anything but the miscarriage of justice that they are. They shouldn't somehow be considered more acceptable than false negatives. That's something that elementary schools often teach us, though, that punishing innocent people is acceptable in the name of making sure you administer punishment to all the bad ones. They might even add in a 'well, you've got to be guilty of something, so I'm still only punishing bad people anyway'. This I think is used to get us to accept the idea of unquestioning obedience to authority. I think this is one of the largest failings of justice and fairness that causes the most human suffering and pain.
I also dislike the way I've seen some discourse try to separate the treatment of sex workers from these larger issues as if this isn't a problem that pervades all aspects of society that harms all of us. I don't think ignoring the wider problems these sorts of policies pose others helps sex workers in any way. This isn't only an issue of economic importance, and protecting people from these types of policies shouldn't be viewed entirely in terms of a balance-sheet. Furthermore, this doesn't just harm sex workers in only an economic way, either. The entire reason why FOSTA/SESTA are so harmful to sex workers is the way they lump innocents and victims in with perpetrators of sexual crimes. And that's exactly what such policies (by implication) do (and they aren't even especially good at catching perpetrators). This affects their bodily autonomy as well as their ability to earn money, and even if the latter were not involved, the former would still be abhorrent.
All of this is connected. These things that harm sex workers are connected to the problem of 'abstinence-only sex education'. They're connected to vilifying the sexuality of LGBT people (including the treatment of HIV+ people), whether those people are sex workers or not. They're connected to how shame and lack of understanding of our own bodies can cause us to miss health problems that might otherwise be caught earlier--problems that could even be fatal. They're connected with viewing 'weird sex stuff' as automatically 'predatory sexual abuse' (again lumping innocents and victims in with the perpetrators of crimes). These things are all connected, and should be treated as such. They are not isolated issues, and understanding that not only can help solidarity, but I think it's the only thing that can ultimately address this problem.
Their new policy on 'Adult Content' is as follows:
"Adult Content. Don't upload images, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples — this includes content that is so photorealistic that it could be mistaken for featuring real-life humans (nice try, though). Certain types of artistic, educational, newsworthy, or political content featuring nudity are fine. Don’t upload any content, including images, videos, GIFs, or illustrations, that depicts sex acts. For more information about what this guideline prohibits and how to appeal decisions about adult content, check out our help desk."
This policy bans both sexual content and nudity that's not deemed sufficiently 'artistic' or 'educational' or 'newsworthy'. But how would anyone even make those kinds of determinations? Even if they weren't using an AI to determine this, do any of us trust Tumblr staff to make these kinds of determinations? I certainly don't.
Here's the thing--I generally prefer not to see nudity or images with sexual content. But there's nothing inherently bad or wrong about either. And if Tumblr itself actually cared about its users, they wouldn't have designed the site in a way that's, for example, constantly shoving content from users you don't follow in your face (and turning this on by default, and not giving a way to opt-out) and de-emphasizing the use of tags in their search and not having fine-grained privacy options. I think these are all examples of the way the Tumblr interface is itself designed to ignore consent.
I think it's a problem to buy into American social norms that vilify the body and human sexuality in the name of stopping child predators or other sexual abusers. I also think it is extremely important not to associate innocuous expressions of sexuality or even just neutral displays of the human body with such awful acts.
I think it's vital not to view false positives as anything but the miscarriage of justice that they are. They shouldn't somehow be considered more acceptable than false negatives. That's something that elementary schools often teach us, though, that punishing innocent people is acceptable in the name of making sure you administer punishment to all the bad ones. They might even add in a 'well, you've got to be guilty of something, so I'm still only punishing bad people anyway'. This I think is used to get us to accept the idea of unquestioning obedience to authority. I think this is one of the largest failings of justice and fairness that causes the most human suffering and pain.
I also dislike the way I've seen some discourse try to separate the treatment of sex workers from these larger issues as if this isn't a problem that pervades all aspects of society that harms all of us. I don't think ignoring the wider problems these sorts of policies pose others helps sex workers in any way. This isn't only an issue of economic importance, and protecting people from these types of policies shouldn't be viewed entirely in terms of a balance-sheet. Furthermore, this doesn't just harm sex workers in only an economic way, either. The entire reason why FOSTA/SESTA are so harmful to sex workers is the way they lump innocents and victims in with perpetrators of sexual crimes. And that's exactly what such policies (by implication) do (and they aren't even especially good at catching perpetrators). This affects their bodily autonomy as well as their ability to earn money, and even if the latter were not involved, the former would still be abhorrent.
All of this is connected. These things that harm sex workers are connected to the problem of 'abstinence-only sex education'. They're connected to vilifying the sexuality of LGBT people (including the treatment of HIV+ people), whether those people are sex workers or not. They're connected to how shame and lack of understanding of our own bodies can cause us to miss health problems that might otherwise be caught earlier--problems that could even be fatal. They're connected with viewing 'weird sex stuff' as automatically 'predatory sexual abuse' (again lumping innocents and victims in with the perpetrators of crimes). These things are all connected, and should be treated as such. They are not isolated issues, and understanding that not only can help solidarity, but I think it's the only thing that can ultimately address this problem.
