Boobs And Bud: Is It Time To Go Back To Tumblr? Weed Friendly Social Network Allows Nudity Again

By Marian Venini Via El Planteo

Without a doubt, the world of social networks is increasingly revolutionized. While some increase their restrictions (Instagram, we are looking at you), others abandon them almost completely, as is the controversial case of Twitter TWTR.

However, there is a social network that seems to have found the sweet middle ground. The microblogging platform Tumblr (whose popularity peaked between the late '00s and early ‘10s), known for its lax regulations regarding cannabis, announced that it will allow nudity again.

As Dazed reported, the platform officially changed its regulations on October 31. The next day, a statement from the company announced: "We now welcome a broader range of expression, creativity, and art on Tumblr, including content that represents the human form (yes, that includes the nude human form)."

"So even if your creations contain nudity, mature or sexual themes, you can now share them on Tumblr using the appropriate community tag," it stated.

These community labels were implemented in September. These allow users to tag their own posts with depictions of drug and alcohol addiction, violence, and sexual content.

On the other hand, it is necessary to clarify that these new regulations do not include explicit porn. However, the platform's ability to differentiate between pornography and aesthetic search is remarkable. Thus, instead of censoring the content, it is committed to trusting its community and its criteria to take care of itself responsibly (call for Instagram).

It should be remembered that this measure comes to reverse Tumblr's decision to ban all adult content (including nudity) in 2018. The consequences were disastrous not only for users but also for the company: the former saw their content censored and reduced the possibility of spreading their art, while the platform lost 30% of its views in the three months after the decision. In fact, the blow was so brutal that WordPress owner Automattic bought Tumblr for less than $3 million in 2019. Six years earlier, Yahoo had paid $1.1 billion for the site.

Social Networks, Sex, and Marijuana

Social media regulations regarding adult content, whether sexual or substance-related, stand out for their complexity, lack of consistency, and a wide variety of criteria across platforms.

Instagram has a long history of censoring content without presenting clear reasons. From time to time, adult and cannabis accounts, for example, find themselves the victims of waves of rather arbitrary suspensions, removals, and warnings. The platform does not seem to care about the importance of educational content or the dissemination of information to carry out historically stigmatized practices safely and responsibly. This includes data on safe sex and harm reduction, and there have even been repeated cases of censorship of the LGBT community.
Twitter, for its part, is much laxer in its position regarding both issues. At the moment, the platform is seeing a restructuring of its regulations due to its purchase by Elon Musk, CEO of TESLA (NASDAQ TSLA). He has promised to make Twitter a place without censorship and a bastion of "freedom of expression." Therefore, the site should, in theory, be a safe place for adult and/or cannabis content. However, this has led to an unprecedented rise in cases of hate speech and abuse, so it remains to be seen exactly what the billionaire means by “free speech” and how safe the aforementioned communities will actually be.

Surprisingly, LinkedIn seems to be an ideal place to share cannabis content, but in a strictly professional context. This is very useful for professionals in the cannabis industry, but not so much for other sectors.

Reddit, on the other hand, allows almost any type of content on its platform. It has a useful division of NSFW communities, separate from the public ones. Also, help connect with people by hosting AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions on specific subreddits.

TikTok also has its own strict rules. Cannabis businesses should be cautious and avoid common cannabis words and hashtags such as weed, cannabis, pot, and stoned. However, scientific and information dissemination content is usually allowed. As for adult content, TikTok does not allow "nudity, pornography, or sexually explicit content"; but recently announced the upcoming introduction of 18+ restriction options for adult live streamers.
That being the case, perhaps Tumblr, with its more friendly history towards marijuana and nudity, is a good option for those who want to build a community based on trust and information without having to deal with arbitrary censorship or hostility. That, or it's time to create our own platform.

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Image by El Planteo

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