Yesterday, Tumblr announced that it will ban all adult content starting December 17th. As users logged into their accounts, they have seen that some of their posts now have a red banner across them, marking them as flagged for explicit content. The problem is, a lot of these posts are hilariously far from being pornographic.
It’s pretty clear that these flags are being done based on an algorithm, and the algorithm is finding false positives. Here’s a list of things that got flagged: a fully clothed woman, a drawing of a dragon, fan-art of of characters from the anime Haikyu!!, art from the children’s book The Princess Who Saved Herself that the author of said book posted, a drawing of a bowl of fruit with mouths, a video of abstract blurs, Garfield.
I am sure that some porn got flagged as well, but a lot of what the algorithm flagged doesn’t look very “explicit.”
Tumblr managed to flag everything but the single, solitary 2014 nipple on my entire blog. pic.twitter.com/MIO3w4XWSZ
— ???? Alisa ❄️ (@alzuna) December 3, 2018
Oh WOW I thought that shutting down my game project’s Tumblr blog because of the NSFW policy was a protest action and not a practical one because all I posted was abstract art but NOPE Tumblr flagged a video of abstract blurs I posted https://t.co/tC4WSR7GB2 as adult content pic.twitter.com/WBwtx2nWwu
— mcc (@mcclure111) December 3, 2018
humorously, one of the only things flagged on my tumblr was this…car boys…animation… pic.twitter.com/4SWPKzehyP
— Louie Zong (@everydaylouie) December 4, 2018
Hey here’s why tumblr’s purge of NSFW will not work. Here is what was flagged as NSFW from my art blog ( a thread ) pic.twitter.com/mUTvbKVfaF
— ride shiny & chrome (•̀⌄•́) (@immortanjill) December 3, 2018
I just went through the 12 most recent pages of my Tumblr archive and these were the only three photos flagged. Two photos of me fully clothed and a picture of my vase ¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/dUG5K8lbCy
— Erika Moen (@ErikaMoen) December 3, 2018
tumblr is cracking down on ????adult content???? and so many of my posts are flagged. is this philosophy babies comic flagged bc the guy’s eyes look like nipples, or because the ideas i’m putting forward are just too RADICAL?!?! pic.twitter.com/6B6P08WNzl
— Julian Glander (@glanderco) December 3, 2018
I haven’t logged into my Tumblr for a year but I had to check which posts had been flagged. pic.twitter.com/dhQpJu5M6v
— Kieran Shiach ???????? (@KingImpulse) December 4, 2018
this wholesome drawing of volleyball boys was flagged as sensitive. OK TUMBLR SURE. pic.twitter.com/6F9LzV1OTF
— Arielle Jovellanos ✨ Shop Open! (@joviellety) December 3, 2018
Look at all the explicit sex and nudity in these dragons and dinosaurs I drew. @tumblr your tech is terrible at this. So many of my illustrations are flagged, even ones that have appeared in actual children’s books nationwide. pic.twitter.com/Czd2jBBozI
— RJ Palmer (@arvalis) December 3, 2018
YEAH!!!! OKAY!!!!! MY PAINTING OF FRUITS WITH FUCKIN TEETH GOT FLAGGED LMFAO!!!!!!!! #Tumblr pic.twitter.com/cYAfPhgRnZ
— ☆ RB ☆ (@RBtheARTISAN) December 4, 2018
Look what Tumblr flagged. This may be the most thoroughly I’ve seen a website destroy itself since Patreon changed their fee structure. Curious to see if Tumblr will walk this back or just collapse. pic.twitter.com/MQxhbqUdyK
— Greg Pak (@gregpak) December 4, 2018
I was looking through tumblr to see which posts have been flagged and I can tell that I’m in for a ride pic.twitter.com/RWkALdAGw6
— real kiwi hours (@radspacepal) December 4, 2018
watch out everyone, it’s M A R I O pic.twitter.com/ImQUSo9qgE
— forosha (@forosha) December 3, 2018
Cooooolllll, so much fun to log into Tumblr and find all my drawings with girls in them to be flagged as adult content!!!! Nice!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/hYRfveo1Bx
— Kat Tsai (@Chuwenjie) December 3, 2018
went to Tumblr for the first time in 2 years to check if anything got flagged, and it was this
(cc: @nocontextCV ) pic.twitter.com/2xeCcaLihB— Jon the Red (@jontheredrc) December 3, 2018
some raunchy stuff getting flagged on my tumblr pic.twitter.com/3sPSqm0inn
— Matt Cummings (@EiffelArt) December 3, 2018
Here is my obligatory Tumblr’s Algorithm is Hilariously Awful post of the day. I’m so saucy with my drawings of *squints* flowy dresses and oversized sweaters pic.twitter.com/iKhV8VJ91d
— Trung ???? Le ❄️ Nguyen ☃️???????????? (@Trungles) December 3, 2018
GARFIELD IS STRAIGHT UP ILLEGAL ON TUMBLR PASS IT ON pic.twitter.com/GPxDsbcjoJ
— shan murphy (@heyshanmurphy) December 3, 2018
I… I literally reblogged this from *myself*, @tumblr – and not only is it 100% safe for work, there is also no option to request a review of the original post, because the original post *isn’t flagged* pic.twitter.com/FDjlJCz7bd
— Anna Landin ????⚪???? Commissions closed (@AnnaLandin) December 3, 2018
Oh, and here’s an image that was not flagged. This one’s not safe for work, if you can believe it.
heres a post that was okay, according to tumblr. by the incredible @maidenfed pic.twitter.com/dqdV9KfYL1
— red dead dead redemption de-de-de-de-destruction (@3liza) December 4, 2018
Out of curiosity, I hopped on my own, barely used Tumblr to see what, if anything was flagged. This reblog was.
This wasn’t.
Getting rid of the porn bots and pedophilia is a good move for Tumblr’s parent company and investors. Their algorithm could use some work, though.
Comments
14 responses to “Tumblr’s New Algorithm Thinks Garfield Is Explicit Content”
Given that this is an article about nudity and porn being removed from tumblr don’t you think it would of been appropriate to put a “contains nudity” disclaimer on the article.
I mean I like breasts as much as the next person but come on, it’s not ironic.
Ah, the obligatory “I’m not personally a prude, but WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN” post.
How is it prudish to say a NSFW disclaimer on the article is relevant, I even wrote a second post saying that I like tits but that posting the nudity here isn’t being ironic.
Also let’s just touch on the whole being a prude for a second, the nudity in question is considered “Art” or a “performance piece” at which point does the line blur where nudity and “art” can’t coexist?
For one person it would just be nudity with no artistic virtue whatsoever, for someone else you could paint yourself purple stand naked in King George Square and call it a performance piece
I know what I’m doing during lunch today.
It is when they regularly put the warning on stories that contain far less.
It should have been there as a matter of fact. Having that kind of content suddenly pop up on your screen unintentionally can cause workplace problems. NSFW was coined for a reason.
Who wants to take bets on how long this whole no porn thing lasts? They’ll either step their fascist policing back or people will find workarounds.
About 3 hours.
It will last until Tumblr gets sold or “reimagined” into something else. See also Digg
But Garfield is explicit. Explicitly silly. X-P
The funny thing is that the official announcement they made on tumblr was flagged for a while as well.
2018, the year when big companies went from popular to meme overnight.