Yahoo Censors Tumblr Porn 216
coolnumbr12 writes "When Yahoo purchased Tumblr in May, Tumblr founder David Karp said Tumblr wouldn't be changing, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said, 'Part of our strategy here is to let Tumblr be Tumblr.' But a new search policy went into effect Thursday that excludes all adult blogs from Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines by disabling indexing of anything it tags as 'adult.' The policy effectively makes the content and 10 percent of Tumblr users completely invisible."
Re:Unsearchable != Censored (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't the result the same? Whether you take it down or hide it, people who want it can't find it.
Re:Not really... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only Yahoo's index, they're blocking indexing for Google and Bing also. Presumably via robots.txt or similar.
So just download wordpress (Score:2, Insightful)
and make your own blog. Or use Google blogger. Or any of a thousand different ways. Why is this even news?
I like pr0n as much as the next guy but a Slashdot groupthink seems to be developing that any entity restricting porn is bad evil censorship. Even if that entity is not government and it's not telling anyone else what to do except on its own site.
Re:Bad Idea? (Score:4, Insightful)
I dont think somehow this is such a bad idea. I mean, they could have just deleted all those pages really
If nobody can find them what's the difference? Is this like getting out of a speeding ticket on a technicality?
Nobody is going to publish content to places no visitors will go. That defeats the whole point of publishing.
Re:Unsearchable != Censored (Score:4, Insightful)
Host $5 website. Post redirect to tumblr. Let google index your $5 website.
Re:Unsearchable != Censored (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not really... (Score:5, Insightful)
point is that they're not allowing spiders to crawl
No, that's tangential. The point is people have made different types of information publicly available, using a private service, and now that information is being effectively taken offline with no recourse. The content is content tagged as "NSFW" or "Adult" which could affect educational content, or content not approrpriate for minors -- which isn't always porn.
This is really falls into the broader category of censoring information which was previously publicly available. FTFA that's about 12 million sites apparently
Re:So just download wordpress (Score:5, Insightful)
It's still a dick move, and you know it.
Some people use their blog as a source of income. That income depends on their blog having an established, searchable presence. Some of those blogs may have the kind of content (like porn) that you or other people may personally look down on.
"Just make your own blog" is a terrible option when you already *have* an established blog, because it means moving and losing a lot of your traffic.
I don't see anyone where arguing that what Yahoo is doing should be *illegal*. They're arguing that it's not a good thing to do, and I agree with them. Finally, I fail to see any good reason that they need to do it, since the major search engines all have adult content filtering already. It's unlikely that Google or Bing demanded that they de-index adult oriented blogs.
Re:Unsearchable != Censored (Score:4, Insightful)
Free speech is the right that no coercive force will be used to stop speech. It mostly applies to government, but could apply to anyone being physically threatened for what they say.
Censorship, as is commonly used, isn't limited to free speech, but also in instances where there was an implied liberty to speak one's mind. If a television show bleeps someone out, that's called "censorship". If a library removes a book over interest group pressure, that's "censorship". If a newspaper fires a columnist for something they wrote, that's "censorship" (if said newspaper refuses to print someone's letter to the editor, though, that's distinctly not censorship).
And if Tumblr is changing their policy to restrict more forms of speech, that would be censorship.
Re:So just download wordpress (Score:4, Insightful)
and make your own blog. Or use Google blogger. Or any of a thousand different ways. Why is this even news?
If generic blogs were an acceptable substitute for what Tumblr does, they wouldn't have 100 million users.
I like pr0n as much as the next guy but a Slashdot groupthink seems to be developing that any entity restricting porn is bad evil censorship.
Why is it good when it's non-governmental? The loss of utility is the same whether it's done by a government or by a corporation. It may be less bad when it's not backed up by force, but it's still a shameful act by Yahoo, and they deserve to be shamed for it.
Re:Unsearchable != Censored (Score:5, Insightful)
To be classified as porn, two opinions have to be met: provokes a sexual response, and has no artistic merit.
Given that people have rather elaborate sexual fetishes, the first part can be (and is) used to classify practically any type of content as porn by at least someone. Not to mention that some people get a hardon from leather boots -- ergo leather boots are pornography? The second aspect is grossly subjective as well, as some people find art in the arrangement of trashcan contents.
Because of this, what get's classified as porn by one individual may not be classified as such by another. Strictly speaking, it becomes a scenario of "you can't look for this because I said so". Well, excuse me, but... I've outgrown the need for parenting on that level. We're basically all adults (or on the way of becoming one), and the world is ran by adults for adults. Subjecting all of us to childlike treatment is an insult.
Re:Not really... (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone should make a search engine that *only* indexes the stuff that robots.txt suggests against.
I imagine a lot more interesting content is on that part of the network.
Yep. I want "Unsafe search" as an option for my search results - filter out all the mundane crap.
Re:So just download wordpress (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're using a service for free, chances are you're not the customer.
Re:Make your own red light district (Score:4, Insightful)
Why should he? His art is his art.
Far better response would be to move all of it together to a better place, and choose some better social medium.
Re:So just download wordpress (Score:3, Insightful)
Some of my relatives use a booth at a weekly swap meet as a source of income. That income depends on their booth having an established, locatable presence. Yet the swap meet could change their policies and refuse to sell them booth space at any time.
If you're going to base your livelihood on a business, it's best to put it entirely under your own control. In my relatives' case, buy/rent their own store location (or get together with other booths at the swap meet to co-own it). In a blogger's case, pay the $10/yr for your own domain and $5/mo for hosting.
This is the same reason why captive marketplaces like iTunes or the App Store are a bad idea. No matter how successful you are, you're still at the complete mercy of the marketplace owner.
Well that's the risk you took when you decided not to put in the extra effort and money to start with your own blog, and instead took the easy way out and started with a hosted site which took care of most of the setup work for you. Do you have any idea how many businesses are locked into Quickbooks for their accounting because it was the quick and easy solution when they were first starting out, but now that they've grown beyond its capabilities they're finding it difficult to switch because Intuit makes it impossible to get your data out of their database?
Look, there are two types of people in this situation. Those who complain about how unfair all this is and get nowhere because while it's dick move on Yahoo/Tumblr's part, there's nothing wrong nor illegal about it. And those who take the lesson learned to heart, pay the cost to transition over to the right way to do it, and get on with life. That's the best way to improve your odds of independent success. Running a business isn't about only picking the "good" choices. It's about picking the best choice you have available. Making your own blog may be a terrible option, but if it's less terrible than being put out of business at the whim of some Yahoo exec, then it's the right choice.
Re:Not really... (Score:4, Insightful)
I was thinking that too. I wasn't aware that there was anything on tumblr that wasn't porn.