Link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/02/tumblr-internet-legacy-survival/621419/There's no doubt that Tumblr was one of the darlings of the internet as recently as a few years ago...a website that allowed its users to speak freely on just about any legal topic, spawning unique and positive communities about everything from sex to politics to fandoms. Beyond that, it was committed to being a sort of anti-Facebook, a website that wouldn't exploit its users and their feelings for money. But today, Tumblr is something of a relic that nobody thinks about.
The article alleges that underneath the positive surface, there were actually a lot of problems that led to its downfall, especially politically. It states in not so many words that Tumblr was one of the birthplaces of "cancel culture". The community often went too far opposing people who posted an opinion that they didn't like, and because of the way conversations on the site are structured the post could be forwarded on even after it was deleted. It also alleges that the site and the community it spawned sparked an "anti PC" backlash...first from sites like 4chan, then other sites, and then the general population. It more than implies that this backlash helped spawn the Alt-Right and led to the election of Donald Trump.
Personally I think that aspect is more than a bit overstated. What's probably more relevant is the December 2018 ban on NSFW content. Prior to that point, Tumblr was the mainstream haven for sex-positive, LGBTQ+, and sex-worker communities because they could be open about who they were, what they liked, and what they were doing without the backlash, harassment, and administrative action that would happen on other websites. A former Tumblr employee is quoted as saying the decision to ban NSFW content was "The nail in the coffin" and that they "never recovered from that".
We talk about this more extensively from time to time in the adult community, but there's a war on NSFW content on the internet. Apple has always been one of its major proponents, with Steve Jobs once saying "Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone". Apple does not allow anything resembling porn on its app store, and the Tumblr app had been removed from the app store about a month before the announcement. The article quotes the former CEO as saying that Apple and other unnamed companies threatened to take Tumblr down entirely if it didn't remove NSFW content, so it's obvious that Tumblr had little control over this decision...it chose, as the CEO said, to "keep Tumblr alive to fight another day".
Overall, the article was an interesting read on Tumblr's history and the things that once made it great, although I think it overstates Tumblr's importance in the grand scheme of things. It was a site whose freedom allowed the creation of unique communities, but ultimately it couldn't be both what it was and mainstream. It did what it had to do to stay alive and lost what made it special in the process. I think it's still a good read, though.
