She said the new policy could hurt the platform’s viability, risking turning Tumblr into another Reddit or Facebook, as its culture and user base could change as a result. Tumblr became home to a lot of NSFW content over the years.

“While there is a lot of straight up porn on Tumblr, and many many porn bot accounts, there are also many different, partially overlapping, incredibly vibrant, partially NSFW cultures—fandoms, artists, self-reflexive diary style blogs,” she added.

Also, it will be a loss for the broader social media landscape. “Tumblr can be considered one of the few spaces still left within the monopolizing, platform-regulated social media ecology, that is still experienced as community oriented, creative, and ‘safe’ for users,” she said.

Tiidenberg, who has been studying Tumblr over the past seven years, said that the platform—in part thanks to its lenient terms of service—is a particularly valuable corner of the internet. It became a space “where it is possible to push back on many different sets of often toxic or discriminating dominant norms (about appearances, sexuality, identity, age etc), and where people, who in some ways feel marginalized can find a voice and community.”

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