According to a recent survey by Similar Web Analytics, the visitors to Tumblr reduced by 1/5th ever since their recent porn ban. While December 2018 had 521 million visits, January 2019 had only 437 million visits. Tumblr banned porn on 17th of December 2018.
The porn ban happened after Apple removed the Tumblr app from the App Store due to inappropriate content that was widespread across the platform.
Tumblr reacted with a blanket ban on pornographic content and updated its content policy to ban any photograph, GIF or a video containing sexual acts or nudity.
This act by Tumblr garnered criticism and public outrage. This ban not only covers illegal activities but also goes further. It restricts many artists from creating art that is not illegal or abusive in any possible way.
At the time of this ban, there was an online petition that received over half a million signatures asking Tumblr to reverse the ban. Here’s what the petition said:
“Let people post porn, it’s 90 percent of the reason anybody is on the site in the first place. If you really want a non-18+ Tumblr, start a new one with that specific goal in mind. Don’t rip down what people have spent years working on.”
Tumblr said they said they don’t intend to suppress healthy conversations and discussions on those topics. They said they still want to be a platform that promotes such discussions.
“Tumblr will always be a place to explore your identity. We fully recognize Tumblr’s special obligation to these communities and are committed to ensuring that our new policy on adult content does not silence the vital conversations that take place here every day,” wrote Tumblr.
There was a widespread movement during the ban that asked people to “log off” Tumblr and quit using the platform. Movements like these coupled with the public outrage and dissatisfaction of people over porn ban have driven the number of visitors down.
Tumblr was once made up of 1/3 porn, 1/3 angsty and misguided teenage girls, and 1/3 crazy cat ladies. Now only the angsty teenage girls and crazy cat ladies remain.
