As meme historians know, the internet is for porn. This was especially true for Tumblr. A place that was there when the first generation grew up that never lived in a time without the the web being widely available. These kids turned Tumblr into a refuge where queerness, diversity and sexuality where celebrated, not shunned.
Then Tumblr got bought by Yahoo. Then Yahoo got bought by Verizon. And thus the fairy tale ended. In a desperate bid to squeeze more money out of the site, Tumblr’s corporate overlords tried to make it more “family” (read: advertiser) friendly. They banned pictures, gifs and videos containing nudity.
It was a fucking terrible idea for many different reasons. Not only for the users but also for Tumblr. Something everyone but Verizon knew and that becomes painfully obvious now.
The porn ban came into effect in December 2018. One month later Tumblr’s traffic went from 521 million monthly visits to 437 million, according to analytics site SimilarWeb. Another month later, in February, it went further down to 370 million visits. Which means Tumblr lost almost a third of its traffic in less then three months.
And it’s not just the numbers that speak volumes. Ask your friends if they’re still using the site. You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone replying with more than a sigh. In my circle of friends Tumblr is considered dead.
I personally used Tumblr every single day for years to look for material for milkboys, I have about 150 Tumblr blogs in my feed reader but since the big purge in December only a handful of them are left still posting, most others got deleted by Tumblr or are abandoned by people who just don’t see any point in using a site that clearly doesn’t welcome them.
The internet is becoming a more hostile place towards queer people, sex workers and everyone who thinks sex isn’t the devil’s work. It’s going to be crucial that we make our voice heard before other social networks follow Tumblr’s example.
Related reading: How sex censorship killed the internet we love