[gtranslate]
News

Tumblr has been bought over, and the porn ban is staying

Despite hopes that PornHub would purchase the platform, Tumblr has sold to the owners of WordPress, who have no intention of lifting the site’s porn ban.

In May, roughly six months after Tumblr’s disastrous porn ban, Pornhub vice president Corey Price expressed his interest in purchasing Tumblr, igniting hope in many that NSFW content would make a return to the platform.

Unfortunately, Pornhub has sadly shelved these plans, and the site has now been purchased by the company that owns WordPress, Automattic Inc., who have expressed that the censorship of adult content is set to continue.

Photo: The Verge

Following the adult content ban put in place last year, Tumblr has faced a fairly catastrophic demise, with site traffic dropping by over 30 per cent in a matter of months. Removing NSFW content from the platform was damaging to users from the LGBTQ+ community who’d forged a safe space in Tumblr, and the poor execution of the ban also inadvertently removed some non-pornographic material from a number of user’s accounts.

Had Pornhub purchased the site, the ban would undoubtedly have been lifted, as Pornhub vice president Corey Price expressed that “Tumblr was a safe haven for those who wanted to explore and express their sexuality, adult entertainment aficionados included. We’ve long been dismayed that such measures were taken to eradicate erotic communities on the platform.”

Automattic Inc’s CEO Matt Mullenweg expressed opposing views this week, according to Hacker News, he stated that “adult content is not our forte either, and it creates a huge number of potential issues with app stores, payment providers, trust, and safety. I personally have very liberal views on these things, but supporting adult content as a business is very different.” 

Tumblr, which once sold for $1.1 billion in 2013, was reportedly sold to Automattic Inc for just $3 million on Monday, a plummeting value that was likely caused by the decrease in site traffic as a result of the porn ban. It’s difficult to see how Tumblr will be revived without rescinding the porn ban, especially considering the many adult content creators who were hurt by the platform’s safe mode.