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Tumblr Announces “Community Labels” Allowing Users to Filter NSFW Content

September 27, 2022

Is Tumblr lifting the NSFW content ban from 2018? Many users think so after Tumblr announced yesterday that they are implementing a new setting feature called “Community Labels”.

Users will now be able to label new and old posts as “unsuitable” for certain filtering criteria. Those labels included content containing either “violence, drug and alcohol addiction, or sexual themes”. According to the user’s own filtering preferences, posts may be hidden or blurred on the dashboard.

NSFW IS BACK ON TUMBLR THIS IS NOT A DRILL! They even have community labels for it now. https://t.co/bZ9JRfdTOV pic.twitter.com/a9ESOhDkyY

— clockworkspider 我是亲妈 (@cwspider) September 26, 2022

The new feature is a part of Tumblr’s effort to allow users “to fully express themselves while also having control over what they encounter on their dashboards”.

Not only is NSFW back I can also choose not to see it. Great news for me. pic.twitter.com/6BXu2PDfIg

— clockworkspider 我是亲妈 (@cwspider) September 26, 2022

Tumblr states content such as spicy fanart, “Euphoria” GIFs, violent film scenes, and “graphic ’50 Shades of Grey’ edit” would need to be labeled and filtered. (Go wild with the “House of the Dragon” GIFs)

Most importantly Tumblr is giving users the choice to see NSFW content for the first time since its ban in 2018. The ban led to a huge migration of Tumblr users to other social media platforms. According to Mashable, Tumblr lost nearly a third of its user base after the NSFW content ban.

With the announcement yesterday of Community Labels, users were rejoicing what they deemed as Tumblr finally coming back.

Someone patch me into Air Force One, tumblr is bringing back porn. this is not a drill, I need to get thru to Joe and Jill

— sarah schauer (@sarahschauer) September 27, 2022

Tumblr is allowing adult content again. So please, for the love of God, all you weirdos who came here from there, go back https://t.co/TI4pN1L0rO

— Tet (@RyeAndTet) September 27, 2022

When all seemed lost and hope a distant memory, Tumblr brought back p0rn.

— Lauren Walsh NYCC (@LaurenWalshArt) September 26, 2022

Though, it’s important to note that in Tumblr’s announcement they do state that Community Labels doesn’t change its content policies, “spam, hate content, and porn bots are still not welcome in the community.”

Sexual themes are stated as “erotic writing and imagery” which is not synonymous with the overtly graphic content users were used to pre-2018.

https://twitter.com/Tumblrsupport/status/1574568360909877248?s=20&t=n6nhhiSanDe_Uui_igfAhw

https://twitter.com/sleepysnaily2/status/1574567115717124096?s=20&t=n6nhhiSanDe_Uui_igfAhw

Still, Tumblr must abide by app store rules and ensure that NSFW content is viewed by users “old enough and have opted in to view that type of content”.

This is is still huge news and a big step towards Tumblr possibly winning back its old user base. Maybe hold off a bit on the more lewd posts.