Continuing its catastrophic demise following its porn ban last year, Tumblr has been bought by the company who owns WordPress, and the censorship of adult content is set to continue.
Although Pornhub expressed its interest in acquiring the platform in May, the site sadly shelved its plans, enabling Automattic Inc to purchase Tumblr for “well below” $20 million (potentially even less than $10 million).
Had Pornhub bought the site, the porn ban would undoubtedly have been lifted, potentially saving the social media platform. Pornhub’s vice president Corey Price expanded on this in an email to BuzzFeed News, writing: “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 the opposite view on Hacker News this week, explaining: “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.”
Without rescinding the porn ban, it’s difficult to see how Tumblr will be revived, especially after many adult content creators were hurt by the platform’s ‘Safe Mode’. “What they’re doing now is just making it harder for adult bloggers to reach out to new people,” artist and adult comic-maker Kayla-Na told Dazed in February last year, “and making it harder for new people to find said blogs.”
Also talking to Dazed, sex blogger Amy criticised Tumblr’s ban, predicting the future when she said: “Joke’s on them, really, because the adult industry is worth billions worldwide and if they don’t want a piece of that, we’ll find plenty of places that aren’t so prudish.”
The joke seemingly is on them, as Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo in 2013 for $1.1 billion, dropping to $230 million in 2016, and obviously plummeting again now.
Who knows what the future holds for the platform, but it’s unlikely Tumblr will see a resurgence until the puritan porn ban is lifted.