The memes about Tumblr's porn ban are safe for work and kind of amazing
18 December 2018, 14:51 | Updated: 18 December 2018, 15:13
Tumblr's community guidelines changed on December 17, effectively banning pornography, genitals, and "female presenting nipples". The internet reacted just as you'd expect and the memes are truly iconic.
Tumblr announced changes to its community guidelines at the end of November. New guidelines laid out by the site prohibited "adult content" from December 17, including "human genitals or female-presenting nipples and any content—including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations—that depicts sex acts."
December 17 has come and gone and Tumblr users have definitely noticed the changes. The memes about the new vibe of the site and "female presenting nipples" are possibly the funniest things to come from Tumblr's new content policy.
Tumblr applying their new community guidelines like#tumblrpurge pic.twitter.com/gn9tKi9MS6
— Christian S. (@ChrisinLiberty) December 17, 2018
*Logs back onto Tumblr* pic.twitter.com/MDhBYWMCB3
— Ben Frazier (@fenbrazier) December 18, 2018
Everyone’s tumblr account avi pic.twitter.com/NuCRNnhfU7
— HENDRY HILMY HILLS (@xHiLeAl_DeBestx) December 18, 2018
i saw a penis on tumblr today and i’ve been on the phone with the police ever since
— Matt Bellassai (@MattBellassai) December 17, 2018
Tumblr Staff: why are these blogs disappearing? They don’t even post NSFW stuff...
— Tyler (@tyler_cov) December 17, 2018
Former Tumblr users: pic.twitter.com/I9qlEauukF
Tumblr banning "female presenting nipples" got the meme treatment right out of the gate.
tumblr staffs newest post like pic.twitter.com/CSaBJ2GIcA
— Insomniac Arrest (@InsomniaArrest) December 18, 2018
Since I can’t do it on #tumblr now, here I am, posting and looking at “female presenting nipples” pic.twitter.com/meGJlwZDf8
— f(elyse) navidad. (@yztalb) December 17, 2018
Tumblr is dead I’ll see you all in hell pic.twitter.com/azlHUTMmKd
— Lilly Flowers🔪 (@cupiddeath) December 17, 2018
Another example of female presenting nipples @tumblr #Tumblr #tumblrpurge pic.twitter.com/Ijr5EQmhtK
— Sandrasaurus Rex (@rhiannon1307) December 17, 2018
maybe the real female-presenting nipples were the friends we met along the way pic.twitter.com/UdyMRZoCzV
— Animated Text (@animatedtext) December 10, 2018
Predictably, people have mixed feelings about the decision. While harmful and potentially illegal activity clearly needed to be addressed on the platform, some argued that the changes would negatively impact sex workers and artists who had created a community on Tumblr.
People also had a lot of concepts about what they were going to do now that the policy was in place.
Every NSFW artist walking out of Tumblr into a different website: pic.twitter.com/cTvbCNw8SR
— Breckin Mathias (@BreckinMathias) December 17, 2018
Users: were gonna leave if you do this
— its Alex bitch (@AlexMudie) December 17, 2018
Tumblr: does it
Users: *leave*#Tumblr: pic.twitter.com/365fnUnbZM
Tumblr after the new guidelines pic.twitter.com/n4IyKdVEGU
— Seto Kaiba (@FuckYugi) December 17, 2018
Current mood #tumblr #tumblrlogoff pic.twitter.com/VbwJTMCmsd
— :..C o l e..: (@UndieBoss) December 17, 2018
Uh... all the NSFW content is hidden. All of it.
Tumblr tell y’all they gon take away the porn Dec 17.
— *Princess Zelda’s Cape In Smash Ultimate (@ThatsSoTunde) December 17, 2018
*Its Monday Dec 17*
Y’all: https://t.co/b3GTZyU9O2
I guess now I can open tumblr in public pic.twitter.com/qACH3WnDm1
— Jake Tyler (@jxketxler) December 18, 2018
Just went into my Tumblr likes.
— Kameron (@KameronToday) December 17, 2018
It’s... they REALLY took it all away. pic.twitter.com/Ui1AlkX2fR
People also took issue with the content that seemed to still be available for public view on the site.
no longer on @tumblr as of today: nipples, dicks
— pony starwars (@tigersgoroooar) December 17, 2018
still on @tumblr as of today: pic.twitter.com/7qaafDYgOl
Tumblr shared a blog post on December 17 clarifying the policy and reiterated what would not be allowed moving forward.
"Photorealistic imagery or photography – images, videos, or GIFs – with real humans that include exposed genitals or female-presenting (yeah, we know you hate this term) nipples or depict sex acts is not allowed per our guidelines."
That's that on THAT, then.
