Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sex censorship killed the internet we love

engadget.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 520 posts

Re: Sex censorship killed the internet we love

#41

Post by lazyjones »

nopriorarrests wrote: post #6

Whats the point of this article? Tumblr is supposed to be monetized. You can't monetize porn content, so tumblr has 'no pron' policy now. Sorry, this is how the world works. Boo. Meanwhile, any kind of porn is plentiful if you go to the different url. Enter any keyword and have porn catered to your interest, in a good quality, abundant. Seriously, this was unimaginable 15 years ago, and yet author claims that someone…

Last time I checked, this wasn‘t even primarily about ad money. Apple had kicked Tumblr‘s app out of the App Store (apparently because of actual child pornography and not just „adult content“), so Tumbler got into some real trouble and had broader reputation issues than just with advertisers.

Re: Sex censorship killed the internet we love

#42

Post by oaththrowaway »

kome wrote: post #25
nopriorarrests wrote: post #6

Whats the point of this article? Tumblr is supposed to be monetized. You can't monetize porn content, so tumblr has 'no pron' policy now. Sorry, this is how the world works. Boo. Meanwhile, any kind of porn is plentiful if you go to the different url. Enter any keyword and have porn catered to your interest, in a good quality, abundant. Seriously, this was unimaginable 15 years ago, and yet author claims that someone…

Tumblr exists since February 2007; they lived, grew and prospered with erotica (and much more!) for 10 years. Let's stop telling ourselves that you can monetize with erotica. It's just American Puritanism, and yes, it's breaking the internet.

They were (and are currently) loosing ~Yahoo~... ~Oath~... Verizon Media money hand over fist.

Re: Sex censorship killed the internet we love

#43

Post by bad_user »

What's interesting to me is how Americans don't bat an eye on all the violence exposed in movies, music and games, but then become prudish when it comes to sex. And these are the traits of the exported American culture.

In my European country it is perfectly normal to have pictures of your children naked. It's also OK for them to see a nude body now and then, like at the beach (and yes I am aware that I'm not talking about all of Europe, some countries ban nudity in public). But do that in the US and you risk being labeled as a pedophile.

I love how freedom of speech is protected by the US constitution, certainly a model to follow for the rest of us, however banning adult content while allowing violence, white nationalism and xenophobia is a huge double standard that gets exported to the rest of the world too.

So as a citizen of an EU country that's not prudish about sex, why do I have to suffer from the censorship of US companies?

And honestly, do you like it when you see actors like Tom Cruise not kissing the girl in his movies, possibly because it needs to be played in China?

Re: Sex censorship killed the internet we love

#44

Post by halfjoking »

nopriorarrests wrote: post #35
halfjoking wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the real story here - payment processors and the US gov are policing morality by making it impossible to run a for-profit NSFW business: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/payment-processors-are... Tumblr and similar sites are just a casualty of monopolistic payment processors doing the bidding of the government. IMO - as long as what you're doing is legal you should be able to make money for it. Anything l…

oh come on. tumbler is aiming for sweet sweet sweet branding advertising dollars, which has nothing to do with payment processors. they are looking for a hefty 1-10-100M transaction from BMW, P&G or Unilever. payment processors are not in this business at all.

Tons of advertisers pay them (large and small). How is that not using a payment processor to process advertiser payments?

It's true that there might be other reasons though... like SESTA/FOSTA scaring them enough that they self-censor. Whatever the reasons are the climate for making a NSFW business are terrible... you're way better off making a marijauna startup these days.

Re: Sex censorship killed the internet we love

#45

Post by maps »

bad_user wrote: post #11
lazyjones wrote: post #3

YMMV... For me, the last straw was having to click away 2-3 banners that cover the content on every website and then often being slapped in the face with a subscription box. This is simply conditioning me to expect disappointment and hence to stop clicking on links. Even on HN I find myself clicking straight on the comment links to get an idea of what the link is about.

Your unwillingness to click on a popup is nothing compared with the systematic censorship that has been sweeping the web. This is one of those cases in which I wished for the first comment I’m seeing to not be so shallow.

Isn't it related? Isn't the whole reason that ad sellers like google are censoring porn is to make their platforms palatable for big ad buyers?

Re: Sex censorship killed the internet we love

#46

Post by nopriorarrests »

Mirioron wrote: post #40
nopriorarrests wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it how the real world works? Have you ever seen BMW or P&G ad in a hardcore porn magazine you have recenty bought? Internet is only different bc VC bucks were willing to tolerate porn for some time, like in tumblr case. Time is up, so everyone has to play by society rules now.

The problem isn't the BMW ad. It's more about BMW refusing to sell me a car because I'm open about porn.

well, then it's not "Sex censorship killed the internet we love", it's "fcsk! world does not work the way I want".

go to BMW marketing dept and pitch them the value of being advertised next to mature lady sucking two huge young cocks.

maybe they really miss this opportunity and it will make them millions?

I dont know.

Re: Sex censorship killed the internet we love

#47

Post by miguelmota »

aussieguy1234 wrote: post #21

Since I heard about Tumblrs new policy a week before it was implemented, I've been hard at work building Libr ( https://librapp.com ) to replace it. A large amount of art that isn't porn, but that qualifies as "adult content" under the new policy has been all but purged from the internet. It's impossible to ban adult content in a cost effective way without also banning a large amount of legitimate art. Libr is about…

What's considered art vs adult content is a very big gray area that's open to interpretation from multiple perspectives. From a platform's point of view, it's safer to ban anything remotely that might considered adult content to avoid false negatives that could land them in trouble.

Re: Sex censorship killed the internet we love

#48

Post by iamdave »

Phlarp wrote: post #13
iamdave wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now Tumblr is a sex-free haven for white nationalists and Nazis. Is the author basing this on anything other than checking to see if white nationalists and Nazis are simply using the site as some sort of electronic forward operating base such that it's worth calling Tumblr a "haven" for these groups? Asked a better way: if you go looking for group x on just about any website, isn't it fair to say you're probably goin…

Many people think nazis are objectively much less acceptable than porn. Particularly the type of softcore "artsy" porn one would expect to find on Tumblr before the crackdown.

I'm not disagreeing with that and I'm not even making a value judgment on what's more acceptable, porn or racism. I don't care to have that discussion. Perhaps my initial question was unclear to receive already negative votes for asking a pretty benign question.

The author describes Tumblr as a "haven" for white nationalists, I'm asking based on what? What makes it any less of a haven than other social sites on the internet for those groups, is their presence on tumblr more or less pronounced than it is on, say, reddit? I legitimately don't know and was curious to hear insight from others because my experience on the site is deliberately starched and sanitized.

Clearly that question offended a few people.

Re: Sex censorship killed the internet we love

#50

Post by throwaway415415 »

bad_user wrote: post #43

What's interesting to me is how Americans don't bat an eye on all the violence exposed in movies, music and games, but then become prudish when it comes to sex. And these are the traits of the exported American culture. In my European country it is perfectly normal to have pictures of your children naked. It's also OK for them to see a nude body now and then, like at the beach (and yes I am aware that I'm not talking…

This. What is wrong with nudity? What is wrong if a child sees a dick or a titty? Why are ashamed? Why is nudity such an awful thing?
Post reply on HN