Tumblr Explains Why It Still Bans Porn: Blame Credit Card Companies, Apple
Don't count on Tumblr ever reversing its porn ban. The microblogging service is keeping it in place to avoid sparking a crackdown from credit card companies and Apple.
“The casually porn-friendly era of the early internet is currently impossible,” says Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic, which acquired Tumblr from Verizon in 2019 and also owns WordPress.
Tumblr recently introduced(Opens in a new window) a new Community Labels function that can help users "fully express themselves while also having control over what they encounter on their dashboard." This prompted some to speculate Tumblr was close to lifting the porn ban it put in place in 2018. But in a post(Opens in a new window) on Wednesday, Mullenweg explains why the “go nuts, show nuts” approach Tumblr was once known for clashes with today’s internet age.
“Credit card companies are anti-porn,” he says, citing how both Visa and Mastercard stopped accepting payments on Pornhub after the adult video site was found hosting child sexual abuse videos. As a result, Mullenweg is concerned that if Tumblr permits porn back on the platform, it’ll get caught up in some controversy that’ll force Visa and Mastercard to crack down on both Tumblr and WordPress.
“Whatever crypto-utopia might come in the coming decades, today if you are blocked from banks, credit card processing, and financial services, you’re blocked from the modern economy,” he says.
Mullenweg also points to Apple, which briefly pulled the Tumblr app from the iOS App Store in November 2018 for hosting child sexual abuse content. Weeks later, Tumblr decided to ban all porn on the service.
Mullenweg is concerned Tumblr could face a repeat of 2018 if the porn ban is lifted. “Today 40% of our signups and 85%
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