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29 tags Tumblr banned from its mobile app (and 10 it didn’t)

#gay, #lesbian, and #depression are just a few of the head-scratchers here.

Photo of Aja Romano

Aja Romano

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In the wake of Tumblr’s censorship of various NSFW-friendly tags from its mobile app, we decided to take a closer look at the types of banned content to see if we could trace patterns.

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Unfortunately for Tumblr’s mobile users, there seems to be inconsistency with regard to what tags are banned and why. For instance, the widely used fandom tag #yaoi is banned, but its counterpart, #boyslove, is not. Meanwhile, tags with general meanings like #facial and #amateur are banned, but #necrophilia and #kinky are not banned.
 

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New content restrictions enrage Tumblr users


Tumblr user gahayi reported that she was seeing banned tags redirecting to “safe” tags:

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I just tried searching for “#gay.” It changed automatically to “#lgbtq.” I tried searching again, and again it changed. The same thing happened to “#bisexual,” “#lesbian,” and “#QUILTBAG.” 

And some tags seem to be banned inexplicably, like “depression,” “blood,” and other terms related to mental illness and self-harm.

Screengrab via Tumblr

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To give you an idea of what’s now missing from your mobile dash, here’s a list of tags that are currently censored on Tumblr’s mobile platform. Click through for what they look like (warning: NSFW!) on the Web.

1) sex

2) porn

3) gay

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4) lesbian

5) bisexual

6) transsexual

7) twinks

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8) BDSM

9) breasts

10 & 11) penis, vagina, and various synonyms thereof

12) bitch

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13) MILF

14) facial

15) yaoi 

16) hentai (similar tags like guro and yiff are not banned)

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17) panties 

18) suicide

19) butts

20) BBW

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21) Topless Tuesday

22) threesome

23) jailbait

24) fetish

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25) depression

26) cutting

27) ana (anorexic) 

28) blood

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29) lolita


Here are some that are OK:
 

1) necrophilia

2) boys love

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3) guro

4) yiff (and furry-yiff)

5) kink

6) tentacles

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7) squicking

8) asshole (though it looks like the mobile app does filter some porn)

9) douche

10) self-harm

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Illustration by Fernando Alfonso III

 
The Daily Dot