Tumblr, one of the leading applications on the Apple store, was suddenly removed from the Apple store on 16th of November. The reason behind the sudden removal wasn’t disclosed.
According to a CNET report, the application was not able to filter out the child pornography content. Tumblr itself. The illegal images were available only because the application wasn’t able to filter them.
In a report, Tumblr said
We’re committed to helping build a safe online environment for all users, and we have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to media featuring child sexual exploitation and abuse. As this is an industry-wide problem, we work collaboratively with our industry peers and partners like [the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children](NCMEC) to actively monitor content uploaded to the platform. Every image uploaded to Tumblr is scanned against an industry database of known child sexual abuse material, and images that are detected never reach the platform. A routine audit discovered content on our platform that had not yet been included in the industry database. We immediately removed this content. Content safeguards are a challenging aspect of operating scaled platforms. We’re continuously assessing further steps we can take to improve and there is no higher priority for our team.”
This is not the first time that Tumblr has been banned. It always had a reputation of allowing sexual-material pass through. This caused the Indonesian government to ban it for a day. Also, South Korea has asked it to moderate adult content.
What is Tumblr?
It is a microblogging website that allows social networking. Owned by Oath Inc., the website allows users to post content to a short-form blog. It has more than 555 million visitors per month.