OKAY So ever since the Tumblr announcement over Apple’s TOS for the app staying on the AppStore, I’ve been seeing so many posts spreading so much information AND misinformation.
If you haven’t seen the post, click here, but basically it boils down to Apple’s TOS for what Apps can and can’t exist on the AppStore are pretty damn draconian. Famously Discord had to disallow ios app users from entering Not Safe For Work/Mature servers. Discord also put in a work-around to this but I’ll get to that. Anyway, those TOS Apple’s put in place are now affecting tumblr.
Misinfo #1: Tumblr is deliberately making the app experience unusable - False
Tumblr is doing what Apple is telling them to do. Apple is the one making the iOS version of the app unusable. Not tumblr. Although their enforcement of Apple’s wants is rather obnoxious this isn’t tumblr’s fault. It’s Apple’s. Direct your ire to Apple, not tumblr, because this is directly their doing.
Misinfo #2: Tags have been ganked. - Well yes, but actually no.
It’s true tags are borped on the iOs app BUT!!! “Banned tags” work just fine in the web version of tumblr, or the Android app. All the tags I’ve seen in the “banned tags” lists going around work just fine on my phone (I have android) or on my laptop. THE TAGS ALSO WORK FINE ON THE BROWSER ON MY IPAD. That’s right, easy way to get around iOS shennangannery? Use the Tumblr website. It looks (and runs) just like the app. There are even other features on the website that aren’t on the app. So if you’re an iOS user frustrated by how the tumblr app now works, log in on Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, literally any internet web browser, and boom bam. Your original tumblr experience is back. Original bugs and all. Screenshot below of my android phone, and the tumblr website being able to access “banned tags.” Also a screenshot of the post from the wip tumblr saying that experiences on Android and the website will not be affected.
Misinfo #3: Tumblr’s doing nothing to combat the ultra-censorship on their iOS app - Maybe
In their post, staff said they’re working on a work-around. They left details pretty vague, as is staff’s wont, but they aren’t exactly out of options. This is where I get back to what Discord did when Apple did the same thing to them. Essentially you would have to go onto Discord on your laptop and allow access to not safe for work servers on iOS. It’s a setting only found in the laptop/desktop version of discord. (see screenshot for proof) I believe Tumblr is probably working on something similar. To allow users to have the original experience by going through the website. For now you still have the browsers on your phone. Also screenshotted, where staff said in their post they’re working on a workaround.
All this to say, you guys need to stop freaking out. Yes, tumblr is broken, tumblr’s been broken for a hot minute, but you know what? This latest censorship dirge is not tumblr’s fault. It’s apples. And there are workarounds, pretty piss easy workarounds like using your browser instead of your app. It’s not even that much more difficult. I know this is frustrating, but being reactionary and spreading misinformation isn’t going to do anything but harm people who are looking for solutions.
For those of you who haven’t seen this announcement, tumblr recently made some changes to the iOS version of the app, purportedly to comply with Apple’s content guidelines. These changes took effect on Dec 21, starting in version 22.5.1 of the iOS app. As some of you may recall, Apple’s strict guidelines were the driving force for the infamous Great Purge of 2018, which coincidentally also happened around this time of year, but it seems banning all of the female-presenting nipples wasn’t good enough for Apple.
Below is a summary of the important changes. Note that these changes technically ONLY affect those using the iOS app. If you’re accessing tumblr through a different app or operating system (Google Chrome, Android app, etc) it won’t affect you directly but it will affect your followers who use iOS so you should definitely be aware of it.
The list of banned tags has been expanded. As before, there’s no way to know which words or phrases have been banned until you try searching for them, in which case you’ll either get no search results or the following message: “This content has been hidden because of potentially suggestive or explicit content.” You may think this doesn’t concern you if you don’t post explicit material, but do not make the mistake of expecting the banned tags to be logical or reasonable. I’ve already encountered multiple completely innocuous posts (random fandom gifsets) that seem to be hidden on iOS for no discernible reason.
Blogs that have been flagged as explicit can no longer be viewed. Previously, flagged blogs just had their posts hidden from searches, but if you knew the username you could still visit it after clicking through a warning about sensitive content. Now you can’t access it at all.
Likes and reblogs from blogs that have been flagged will no longer show up in your notes. This one won’t affect most people’s user experience as much as the others, but it does mean you may be missing notes. It’s unclear if likes and reblogs from flagged blogs will still count towards the overall note total (and only be missing from the activity feed and note viewer) but I suspect that’s the case.
THE BIG ONE: ANY POST TAGGED WITH A BANNED TAG WILL NO LONGER SHOW UP ON YOUR DASHBOARD. Previously, if you tagged a post with a banned word or phrase (even if the words were used inside another tag), that post would not show up in searches, but your followers would still be able to see it on their dashboard. Now those posts are hidden from your own followers as well. This includes both original posts and reblogs. And if that wasn’t bad enough, here’s the real kicker: even if you don’t tag something with one of the banned words, if the OP used a banned tag, any reblogs of that post will not show up on anyone’s dashboard (on the iOS app). The only saving grace here, and I hate to even call it that, is that the blocked posts are still visible if you visit a blog directly or if you have post notifications turned on.
As usual, tumblr was extremely unclear and evasive about all of this in their official announcement. Not surprising, of course, since if more people were aware of these new draconian tactics I can’t imagine there wouldn’t be more of an uproar about it. Tumblr claims that these changes are somewhat temporary and that they are currently working on something that will allow for a less restricted iOS experience, but they refuse to say what that something is and when it will be implemented. And let’s just say, considering their track record, I’m not hopeful.
All of this is horrible and infuriating for many reasons, but the worst part is how insanely counterproductive it is to creating the “safe” environment tumblr (or more specifically Apple) supposedly wants.
Tags have always been used for both blog organization and filtering purposes. Tagging posts with triggers and content warnings is a common practice that gives users the ability to filter out content they may find upsetting or just don’t don’t want to see for whatever reason. By choosing to ban a bunch of unlisted “sensitive content” tags, all they’re doing is encouraging people who want to share that kind of content to come up with alternative less well-known tags or simply not tag that content at all anymore if they want it to show up on their follower’s dashboards, thereby making it more likely for someone to encounter it when they didn’t want to.
So really, with all of the alleged concern for safety and “protecting the children,” all they’ve done is make tumblr less safe for everyone. Typical.
On this day, 26 December 1862 the largest mass execution in US history took place when 38 Native American Dakota people were hanged during the US-Dakota War of 1862. Some of the trials of the Native Americans lasted less than 5 minutes, and president Abraham Lincoln personally reviewed the trial paperwork and approved the death penalties.
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Learn more Indigenous resistance and genocide in An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, available here: https://bookshop.org/a/80203/9780807057834https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1884859665032508/?type=3
