Key Takeaways:

  • When tech billionaire Elon Musk made a deal to acquire Twitter in April 2022, many Twitter users threatened to shut down their accounts and migrate elsewhere online.
  • This is partly due to the flexibility of the main user interfaces.
  • In 2013, after Yahoo acquired Tumblr, there was concern that the platform would tighten its content policies.
  • As companies like Facebook struggle with the Gen Z demographic, Tumblr has, for some of them, emerged as an attractive “vintage” alternative – comparable to the return of disposable camerasamong young people.
  • While fighting to increase site traffic and earn ad revenue without driving users away, the NSFW ban, like a vengeful spirit, continues to haunt Tumblr.
  • At the same time, the underbelly of this memory – the part consumed by unresolved wrongs and resentments – seems to stop short any growth that could lead to a true renaissance

When tech billionaire Elon Musk made a deal to acquire Twitter in April 2022, many Twitter users threatened to shut down their accounts and migrate elsewhere online.

Tumblr – a microblogging platform launched in 2007 long known as a laboratory for social justice causes and burgeoning fan cultures – became one contender. 

However, many Twitter users proposing a migration to Tumblr seemed to be those who had abandoned the site only a few years prior.

In 2018, Tumblr content deemed sexually explicit – or NSFW – was banned. The controversial policy led to a mass exodus from the site, the so-called Tumblr apocalypse.

Both as a communication researcher and early era user of Tumblr, I’ve contemplated the site’s unique place in internet culture. And in the years following the NSFW ban, I’ve seen many try to make sense of Tumblr as a platform on the cusp of acomeback or a vestige of a bygone era.

And yet, long overshadowed by social media platforms like Facebook and Snapchat, Tumblr continues to resist easy answers to what it is and could be.

From ‘blue hellsite’ to hell in a handbasket

Since its inception, Tumblr has served as a countercultural hub for women, queer folks, young people and marginalized communities. At the same time, it has long dealt with issues such as recurrent bugs and functionality problems, bullyinghate speech and the glorification of self-harm, leading some users to term it the “blue hellsite.” 

In spite of that, Tumblr remains a home to art, fandom, memes and social critique. This is partly due to the flexibility of the main user interfaces. Both the individualized blogs and real-time feeds display an array of original and re-blogged media, ranging from written posts to videos. In allotting greater control over how users presented themselves online – through, for example, pseudonymity and relaxed content moderation – Tumblr stood out as a bastion for creative expression.

This approach contributed to its explosive growth, which crested in 2013 and 2014 when Tumblr claimed users spent more time on the site than Facebook and Twitter

Two smiling men sit in front of a screen.
Tumblr founder David Karp meets with President Barack Obama in 2014 at a high point for the social media platform.Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Such openness also facilitated the rise in NSFW content that became a core part of Tumblr’s identity. For the user base, access to queer, feminist and alternative representations of sex and sexuality was meaningful, leading to self-exploration and community building for vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ+ youth. And for those who produced their own NSFW content, Tumblr’s leniency meant income

The embrace of NSFW content – a rarity for social media platforms  – was even endorsed by its founder David Karp, who once characterized Tumblr as “an excellent platform for porn.” 

In 2013, after Yahoo acquired Tumblr, there was concern that the platform would tighten its content policies. However, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promised Tumblr users that little would change.

Events that followed, however, would transform Tumblr.

First, in 2017, Verizon Communications bought Yahoo. Later that year, Karp left the company. Then, in early 2018, a federal law called FOSTA-SESTA passed, which made website operators like Verizon liable for sex trafficking or sex work carried out on their platforms. That November, Apple Store removed the Tumblr app after child sexual abuse material was found on the site. Weeks later, Tumblr announced a ban on NSFW content that went into effect on Dec. 17, 2018.

But that same month, Vox reported that the NSFW ban was underway well before the Apple Store controversy. The objective: to sell more ads.

Tumblr’s various parent companies have long tried to monetize a platform historically resistant to traditional advertising. The ban became a way to attract companies hesitant to advertise alongside pornography. 

This move was transparent to many Tumblr users, who claimed that Verizon was repackaging its profit motive as a crusade to protect children.

I’ve researched how, in response to the NSFW ban, pockets of resistance emerged, ranging from boycotts and petitions to scathing critiques and memes. The policy, at its core, was a battleground for a deeper power struggle between platform owners and users. 

The disconnect between how the two sides envisioned the platform ended up being mutually destructive. While Tumblr’s user culture was irreparably damaged, its corporate side also suffered, experiencing massive drops in site traffic. In 2019, Verizon sold Tumblr to WordPress’ owner, Automatic, for US$3 million – a fraction of the $1.1 billion Yahoo had paid for it.

The end or a new beginning?

While clashes over site policy persist to this day, I’ve started to see talk about Tumblr’s possible resurgence. 

Even before Musk’s Twitter announcement, the platform seemed to be making strides in regaining public interest and relevancy.

There’s been the hype around the Dracula Daily newsletter, which percolated on Tumblr in May 2022. Fan cultures for newer shows like “Euphoria” and “Succession” have also flourished on the site. And in meme culture, “Tumblr humor” – typified by a dry, absurdist and self-deprecatory wit – continues to circulatewidely online

But Tumblr’s “resurrection” seems to rely primarily on a youth culture in the grips of nostalgia for the early 2010s. What has been termed Tumblrcore – a 2010s subculture with a particular media taste, internet experience and soft grunge style – is a recent addition to the trend. Its renewed popularity was affirmed earlier this year with Vogue’s coverage of the “2014 Tumblr Girl aesthetic.” 

Tumblr, then, like the defunct video sharing platform Vine, has become a touchpoint for young people  who grew up on the internet and have emotional ties to its cultural history. As companies like Facebook struggle with the Gen Z demographic, Tumblr has, for some of them, emerged as an attractive “vintage” alternative – comparable to the return of disposable camerasamong young people. 

The TikTok roadblock

But alongside these glimmers of regeneration, Tumblr faces two key obstacles.

The first is the ascent of TikTok. Though also prohibiting NSFW content, TikTok has imported many of Tumblr’s cultural features – from discourses around sexuality and social justice to the promotion of pro-anorexia content and bullying. With TikTok as the beating heart of online youth culture, Tumblr is pushed further to its edges.

The second is Tumblr itself. While fighting to increase site traffic and earn ad revenue without driving users away, the NSFW ban, like a vengeful spirit, continues to haunt Tumblr. One need only look at responses to Tumblr’s tweets in the wake of Musk’s acquisition announcement. Representing the loss of once-prized community values, the ban, for many, became an emblem of the broken social contract between users and ownership

And so contradictory forces shape Tumblr’s standing. On the one hand, the memory of Tumblr keeps it alive in popular culture. At the same time, the underbelly of this memory – the part consumed by unresolved wrongs and resentments – seems to stop short any growth that could lead to a true renaissance. 

Beyond platform ‘life’ and ‘death’

The peculiar case of Tumblr shows how classifying platforms as dead, dying or alive can be limiting. Such a frame often operates according to a capitalist logic in which “growth” means life and “stagnation” signals death.

Dwelling somewhere in between surge and stasis, Tumblr serves as a reminder that platforms are not just profit-driven businesses but gathering places with rhythms and cycles of their own. They are also cultural artifacts that, in moving through the collective imagination, take on different shapes and functions. 

Attention to the in-between reveals a more complex relationship between users, platforms and owners. It is here the savviness of social media users is on display. Though platform owners wield unilateral power and control, users are increasingly equipped with an arsenal of resistance tactics, including exodus or migration. The rise of this untethered user – one who takes a nomadic approach to digital life – may pose an unexpected threat to digital intermediaries. 

Tumblr is a case in point. And yet, in its new phase of existence, it remains a vibrant space for communication, culture and laughs. Its home at the margins should instead push us to imagine an internet free from the belief that bigger is always better.

Contributor

Recently Published

Key Takeaway: The concept of the “cosmic censorship conjecture” suggests that singularities within the universe are hidden within black holes, providing a protective barrier. However, the integration of quantum mechanics challenges this idea, creating “quantum black holes” that obey the subatomic world’s rules. These quantum entities must account for effects like negative energy, which does […]
Key Takeaway: The second, the fundamental unit of time, is being refined through advancements in timekeeping technology. Throughout history, humans have sought to track time with greater precision, starting with the Neolithic site of Newgrange in Ireland. In 1967, the International System of Units established that a second corresponds to 9,192,631,770 oscillations of radiation emitted […]

Top Picks

Key Takeaway: A visiting professor from Canada delivered lectures on complex dynamics, revealing breathtaking visuals of fractals, a realm pioneered by Benoit Mandelbrot. Mandelbrot’s groundbreaking work transformed how mathematicians approached their work, legitimizing the use of pictures in mathematics and challenging the field’s traditional reliance on purely analytical methods. His groundbreaking work, “The Fractal Geometry […]
Key Takeaway: Recent research by physicists has revealed that our universe may not be optimal for intelligent life. The mysterious force known as dark energy accelerates the universe’s expansion, but its value is far smaller than theoretical expectations. Researchers used anthropic reasoning to explain this, arguing that the properties of the universe must align with […]
Key Takeaway: Scale AI has launched the initiative “Humanity’s Last Exam” to determine the capabilities of cutting-edge large language models (LLMs) like Google Gemini and OpenAI’s o1. The initiative aims to determine how close we are to achieving AI systems that rival human expertise. The challenge lies in evaluating intelligence in machines that can already […]
Key Takeaway: Volkswagen, once a symbol of German industry and co-management between shareholders and unions, is facing a crisis due to strategic missteps, a convoluted governance structure, and a culture that often prioritizes control over innovation. The company’s journey began in 1937 with the Beetle, which became the world’s largest carmaker in the 1980s and […]

Trending

I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […]

Join our Newsletter

Get our monthly recap with the latest news, articles and resources.

Login

Welcome to Empirics

We are glad you have decided to join our mission of gathering the collective knowledge of Asia!
Join Empirics