NEW YORK — Tumblr has introduced a new feature enabling users to label posts as featuring “sexual themes,” defined as content which “contains sexually suggestive subject matter, such as erotic writing or imagery.”
The news was shared via a post on Tumblr's staff blog and first flagged by tech news site Mashable.
Mashable reporter Elizabeth de Luna posited that the new development could be the first indication of the platform shifting back towards the toleration of NSFW material that characterized its heyday.
“After a 2018 ban led to a notoriously devastating exodus from the microblogging site, users were tickled to notice a few interesting turns of phrase in a platform update,” de Luna wrote.
According to Tumblr, the new “Community Labels” system was developed so that its users could “fully express themselves while also having control over what they encounter on their dashboards.”
The announcement offered users the option to "show, blur, or hide" content depicting:
- Drug and alcohol addiction: Contains discussions of substance abuse or addiction experience.
- Violence: Contains violent or graphic content similar to what you might see in an age-restricted movie.
- Sexual themes: Contains sexually suggestive subject matter, such as erotic writing or imagery.
Tumblr included a notice that “porn bots are still not welcome” and emphasized that the site will continue to “abide by App Store rules” by restricting access to minors.