Netflix's You Review: Lonely Boy Would Be Proud Of This Twisty Stalker Tale

UPDATE: This story was originally published on September 5 at 11:55 a.m.soIn late December 2018 Netflix released the first season of You, originally a Lifetime-Netflix collaboration, on their service for TV fans everywhere to stream. In the weeks since, the terrifying tale of Joe Golberg ( Gossip Girl alum Benn Badgley) and Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) — which will be a Netflix-only production for the upcoming season 2 and beyond — has become a constant source of Twitter memes and social med...
Tags: Facebook, Fashion, Music, New York, NYC, New York City, Beck, Netflix, Upper East Side, Tumblr, Penn Badgley, Dan Humphrey, Joe, Dan, Facebook Instagram, Goldberg

Instagram Secret Menus, New Trends Decoded

In this edition of Decoded, our fiends at AWAL look at the trends and hidden tricks shaping entertainment inside the Facebook owned and operated social media crown jewel that is Instagram. _________________________ Guest post from AWAL The sheer scale of Facebook’s owned-and-operated crown jewel makes it a vital endpoint in the content race—an inspiring and overwhelming launchpad for preternaturally gifted yodelers, abnormally adorable dogs, and generational artists who set new sta...
Tags: Facebook, Music, Instagram, US, Bbc, Ocean, Nice, Tumblr, Frank Ocean, Anderson Paak, AP Rocky, Paak, Awal, Sunil Singhvi, Will Page Spotify, Sunhil

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project

In 1979, a woman named Marion Stokes started recording live television and didn’t stop for more than 33 years. Director Matt Wolf is making a movie about Stokes and her archive. Marion Stokes was secretly recording television twenty-four hours a day for thirty years. It started in 1979 with the Iranian Hostage Crisis at the dawn of the twenty-four hour news cycle. It ended on December 14, 2012 while the Sandy Hook massacre played on television as Marion passed away. In between, Marion recorde...
Tags: Tumblr, Stokes, Jason Kottke, Marion, Matt Wolf, Marion Stokes, Marion Stokes Matt Wolf

We tested Tumblr's ban on porn. It needs work

Tumblr continues to crack down on adult conduct, but its behind-the-scenes technology still struggles with identifying the difference between what's banned and approved nudity.
Tags: Cnn, Tumblr

Indonesia unblocks Tumblr following its ban on adult content

Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest country by population, has unblocked Tumblr nine months after it blocked the social networking site over pornographic content. Tumblr — which, disclaimer, is owned by Oath Verizon Media Group just like TechCrunch — announced earlier this month that it would remove all “adult content” from its platform. That decision, which angered many in the adult entertainment industry who valued the platform as an increasingly rare outlet that supported erotica, was a res...
Tags: Apple, Google, Google Play Store, Apps, Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Social Media, Tech, Whatsapp, Software, Computing, Pornography, Tumblr, Photo Sharing, Telegram

A ban on airbrushing?

When celebrities come out with ideas for passing new laws, it’s usually polite to avert one’s glance and move on. But a BBC opinion piece by British actor Jameela Jamil merits a closer, if critical, look. Jamil, known in this country for her work in The Good Place, says we should pass a law to ban photos that have been touched up to make people look better. Seriously, that’s her idea. “Airbrushing of people in magazines and especially in advertisements shouldn’t be legal,” as she summed it up on...
Tags: Europe, Sweden, Opinion, Sport, Earth, Bbc, Britain, Soccer, Tumblr, Scandinavia, Advertising Standards Authority, Stockholm, Jamil, Jameela Jamil, Walter Olson, Guest Commentary

State of the Blog (December 2018)

Back when this blog was the most active, I liked to kick off the new year with a post that shared some of my intentions for the coming year. Although it included things I wanted to do with the blog, it went beyond that, and would lay out projects that I was hoping to make happen. As 2018 comes to an end, I’ve been feeling like it’s time to do something similar, focusing on this site. As I’ve written before, after this site was on what amounted to “life support” for quite a few years, I started ...
Tags: Travel, Column, Japan, General, Blog, Blogging, Meta, Tumblr, Montreal, Game Boy, Debaser, State of the blog

Tumblr Flagging Its Own Allowed Nudity

Individuals have not been particularly shocked over the fact that Tumblr has now been flagging nude content that they themselves have said is allowed, a prime example of incompetency to add salt into the wounds of those still upset with the porn purge. An official post was published on Tumblr’s staff account following the porn […]
Tags: Politics, Censorship, International, Pornography, Anime, Tumblr

Verizon Blocks Archival Before Tumblr Porn Purge

“Archivists” seeking to preserve what they could of the cancerous remnants of Tumblr’s pornucopia before it was obliterated forever were met with stonewalling as Verizon blocked their IPs and put a temporary halt on their plans. Tumblr previously announced that they would be removing all pornographic content from their social media site, a decision that […]
Tags: Verizon, Politics, Internet, Censorship, International, Anime, Tumblr, Sites, Verizon Blocks Archival

Before Tumblr switched off access to NSFW blogs, it blocked archivists who were trying to preserve them

When Tumblr announced its plan to purge "female-presenting nipples from its service, the volunteer Archive Team leapt into action, working furiously to preserve years of material before Tumblr tore a huge whole in the internet's historical record. This week, as parent company Verizon was massively writing down its value, Tumblr went through with its purge, relying on its notoriously terrible automated filters to wield the flamethrower. Throughout Archive Team's labors, they were hounded by...
Tags: Verizon, Twitter, Post, News, Motherboard, Bastards, Tumblr, Archive Team, OATH, Ernie Smith, Samantha Cole Motherboard, Nsfwpocalypse, Seriously Fuck Them

Tumblr Blocked Archivists Just Before Starting the NSFW Content Purge

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: By now, of course, you're aware that the Verizon-owned Tumblr (which was bought by Yahoo, which was bought by Verizon and merged into "Oath" with AOL and other no longer relevant properties) has suddenly decided that nothing sexy is allowed on its servers. This took many by surprise because apparently a huge percentage of Tumblr was used by people to post somewhat racy content. Knowing that a bunch of content was about to disappear, the famed Ar...
Tags: Verizon, Yahoo, Tech, Aol, Tumblr, Scott, Jason Scott, Archive Team

Russia's disinformation campaign wasn't just on Facebook and Twitter. Here are all the social media platforms Russian trolls weaponized during the 2016 US elections (GOOG, FB, VZ)

Russia influence on the 2016 presidential election spanned beyond Facebook and Twitter, according to new reports provided to the Senate intelligence committee. The research concluded that the disinformation campaign reached several social media platforms previously unnamed, including Instagram, Vine, and Pinterest. Business Insider has compiled all the social media platforms named in the reports, and the roles that each platform played in the Russian-linked influence operation. The use of soc...
Tags: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Congress, Senate, Russia, US, Trends, Oxford, Ira, Tumblr, Naacp, Business Insider, Congressional, Internet Research Agency

Tumblr's porn filter blocked Tumblr's images illustrating what Tumblr's porn filter won't block

Yesterday, despite the manifest, glaring problems with its porn filter, Tumblr turned on mandatory porn-blocking for all its users' content, so that anything that its bots identified a pornographic would be invisible. Tumblr faced a backlash over its announcement that it would ban "adult content," and not just because Tumblr had traditionally nurtured communities built around queer and marginalized sexuality -- but also because the company defined "adult content" in part as being "female pr...
Tags: Verizon, Post, News, Machine Learning, Tumblr, Gizmodo, Botwars, OATH, Adversarial Examples, Female-presenting Nipples, Nsfwpocalypse, Hudson Hongo Gizmodo

Tumblr Porn Vanishes Today

Earlier this month, Tumblr announced that it would be permanently banning adult content from its platform on December 17th. Well, that day has arrived and the social media site is now hiding all posts that are currently flagged as explicit, as well as posts that users are in the process of appealing. This includes media showing sex acts, exposed genitals, and "female-presenting" nipples. The Verge reports: In addition to what's already gone, more adult content is going to be flagged in coming we...
Tags: Tech, Tumblr

As adult content ban arrives, Tumblr clarifies and refines rules

Let’s talk about the grown-up stuff — the adult content that Tumblr says it’s banning starting today. The wording of the company’s initial plans was admittedly confusing, upsetting both artists and sex workers who have begun to rely on the platform as a kind of safe place for self-expression. The site issued a blog post today clarifying what had initially appeared to be a scorched earth approach to the explicit content as Tumblr frantically attempted to work its way back into Apple’s good gr...
Tags: Apple, Verizon, Apps, Tech, Lgbtq, Tumblr

Tumblr still wants users to think of it as a place to “explore sexuality”… just without any sex

Well, today is the day. Going forward, Tumblr will no longer allow adult content on its platform.
Tags: Twitter, Sex, Life, Censorship, Lifestyle, Tumblr, Ban, Adult Content, Ad Friendly, Queerty

This post may contain sensitive media

It’s the end of an era. Earlier this month, Tumblr announced that it would delete all adult content from its platform on December 17. That day, friends, is today. The blogging platform has been furiously flagging posts as explicit since announcing the ban on December 3. Starting today, all of those flagged posts will be hidden from view. The site has been relying on computers to flag the content. “Computers are better than humans at scaling process—and we need them for that—but they’re ...
Tags: Apple, Apps, Tech, Tumblr

Memers lament as Tumblr’s impending ban on adult content draws nearer

Monday, December 17, 2018 will be a day that lives in infamy... At least, for people who rely on Tumblr for porn.
Tags: Instagram, Life, Lifestyle, Memes, Tumblr, Ad Friendly, Queerty, Tumblrisdead, gay Tumblr

Tumblr’s ‘female-presenting nipples’ language isn’t semantic — it’s oppression

Tumblr‘s whiplash-inducing ban on “all adult content” has been about as well-received as a tequila-fart in a car full of strangers with the windows stuck in the up position. Furthermore, it’s offensive, poorly-implemented, and serves little use besides shaming women for having nipples. The company, which is owned by Verizon Media Group, announced it would implement the ban after Apple removed the app from the App store for being an unwitting host to child sexual abuse imagery. How banning adult ...
Tags: Apple, Startups, Opinion, Tech, Tumblr, Verizon Media Group

This week’s best Android games to help you forget about Tumblr

Welcome to our weekly column, in which YouTuber NimbleThor brings you a short list of the best new mobile games for your Android device. Whether you’re into casual time wasters or hardcore shooters, you’ll find something in here to exercise your thumbs with. With Tumblr’s new algorithm to combat adult-content mistakenly cracking down on everything from pictures of vases to dinosaur bones and Pokemon fan-art, Tumblr is slowly turning on its own audience. And so if you’re getting tired of Tumblr t...
Tags: Google, Startups, Gaming, Apps, Pokemon, Tumblr

Tumblr Returns to Apple’s App Store Following Porn Ban Announcement

After Tumblr mysteriously disappeared from Apple’s Apple Store last month, it appears it has returned to the iOS store. The re-emergence of Tumblr’s app on the platform this week follows its controversial and maligned ban on adult content, which the company said would begin taking effect on December 17.Read more...
Tags: Apple, Science, Porn, Tumblr, App Store, Apple Store, Rip Tumblr

Tumblr reemerges on the App Store after controversial NSFW purge

After a turbulent few weeks, it appears Tumblr may finally be back on track. Its app has now reappeared in the iOS App Store. The company’s recent moves to purge adult content from its site have been met with stiff resistance from users, but it appears it might have worked out in the company’s favor. For almost a month, Tumblr has maintained a page on its help site about the iOS app, promising that its staff was working to restore the app and giving more background on why it was removed in the f...
Tags: Startups, Apps, Tumblr

Tumblr’s back in the App Store following porn ban announcement

Tumblr is back. Sort of. The social blogging platform reappeared on Apple’s App Store this week, some three weeks after being pulled over child pornography concerns. Ten days ago, the company adopted a scorched earth response to the issue, announcing a blanket ban on adult material as part of a “better, more positive Tumblr.” The move appears to have paid off on one front, at least. The iOS version has returned to Apple’s hallowed halls with a version history noting that “this particular upda...
Tags: Apple, Apps, Porn, Tech, App Store, Tumblr, Erika Moen

Verizon writes down its Yahoo/AOL assets by $4.6 billion

A friend who works in ad-tech tells me that Verizon's datasets from its Yahoo/AOL assets are "the creepiest" in the industry, but even with every dirty trick and every stupid, harebrained scheme, the companies formerly known as Oath (because everything Verizon did made their users swear uncontrollably) are basically worthless. Verizon's $4.6 billion markdown slices the book-value of services like AOL and Tumblr in half. There will be more blood before this is over. The episode offered a ...
Tags: Verizon, Post, Business, News, Yahoo, Aol, Tumblr, Tim Armstrong, AT T Inc, Armstrong, Yahoo AOL, Hans Vestberg, Surveillance Capitalism, OATH, Verizon Verizon, Zuboff

Shitty Tumblr pornbot inception

It started when Tumblr flagged one of my retrospective posts (a five year old post about the right of British schoolkids to opt out of fingerprinting) as porn. So I made another post, making fun of the pornbot's shitty judgment. It got flagged. Undaunted, I made another post complaining about the pornbot's shitty judgment about its own shitty judgment. Guess what happened? Naturally, I couldn't let that slide. YOU WON'T EVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT! I can keep this up all day, yo...
Tags: Post, News, Machine Learning, Tumblr, Recursion, Bots Suck

Decoded: Instagram’s Latest Trends, Secret Menus

Here we look at how the Facebook-owned social media platform powerhouse that is Instagram is dominating a transforming the music industry's social media landscape, and some of the statistics, trends, and hidden tricks through which it's doing it. _________________________ Guest post from AWAL Decoded dismantles big topics into manageable insights for artists & teams.   The sheer scale of Facebook’s owned-and-operated crown jewel makes it a vital endpoint in the content race—an ins...
Tags: Facebook, Music, Instagram, Marketing, US, Social Media, Bbc, Ocean, Guest Post, Nice, Tumblr, Frank Ocean, Anderson Paak, AP Rocky, Paak, Awal

We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #426

Facebook brings Stories to Groups, globally Facebook is determined not to let Stories die – the platform is now taking Group Stories global. After its initial debut last year, the platform has now opened the feature up to all users and has even introduced reactions so that all members can respond. As with other posts to Groups, Facebook has also given admins the option to approve content before it’s shared with the wider group. Facebook has also released user numbers for Stories, claiming that 3...
Tags: Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Youtube, Seo, Lego, Tumblr, Mashup, Skype, National Geographic, Logan, Bella Hadid, Huda Beauty, Jake Paul, Groups Facebook, Hopper HQ

How to save all your (NSFW) Tumblr content before it’s too late

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, tricks, guides, and advice on how to get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. Last week, Tumblr announced its ban on porn, starting from December 17th. Since its announcement, the platform has been flagging and removing all adult-rated content from its site — including porn, GIFs, and “female-presenting nipples.” The internet has been questioning the platforms uncertain future and taking to Twitter to share innocent posts that have bee...
Tags: Startups, Apps, Social Media, Tech, Tumblr, Basics

Tumblr users are leaving in droves as it bans NSFW images. Here’s where they’re going instead

Tumblr announced this week it will ban content featuring nudity from its platform, starting December 17. The decision was met with lots of backlash from users who view the site as a safe space to explore their identity and sexuality through not safe for work (NSFW) content. Many Tumblr users have said they plan to abandon the platform for alternative blogging websites that allow explicit content, some which can be found below. Tumblr says it's banning "adult content" from its platform in ord...
Tags: Verizon, Trends, Nsfw, Tumblr, The Washington Post, Newgrounds, Pillowfort