
Tumblr’s banning “self-harm” blogs that promote eating disorders and suicide - lambtron
http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/23/tumblrs-banning-self-harm-blogs-that-promote-eating-disorders-and-suicide/
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blantonl
There will certainly be folks that decry this move as limiting freedom of
speech, but the reality is this:

 _Freedom of speech does not apply when you participate on a private
organization's platform._

For those that strongly oppose these types of policies from social networks,
I'm very much in favor of you starting your own social network to cater to
tastes and generes that suit what _you_ feel is appropriate for your
community.

~~~
jfoutz
That's true. You can't talk politics in the mall. OTOH if you actively
encourage loitering then get pissed off when people loiter - you're a
hypocritical asshole, and i think your property rights should be diminished.

 _edit_ very first line from <http://www.tumblr.com/about>

"Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything."

which is a bold faced lie.

~~~
noahc
I think you're being a bit too liberal in your understanding of the word
'anything'.

I am all for free speech, but there is a long list of things like child porn,
state secrets, copyrighted material, etc that I think we would all agree is
not in Tumblr's best interest to not be shared effortlessly.

~~~
drivebyacct2
Which are all illegal, thus (in my mind) it is implicit. In fact, bans on the
things you've listed have probably been in their Terms of Use since they
turned their server on. I mean, those aren't allowed _anywhere_ , they're
almost completely out of the realm of this discussion which is explicitly
about banning things simply because someone doesn't like them.

------
nmridul
Now they should also ban start-up founders who brag about working without
sleep continuously for days. It also promotes living disorders and there could
be teens out there that would copy this and put their health in danger.

Edit - Working sleepless nights may seem normal in the HN community. But, this
is also something that puts the health in danger (sometimes even more than
eating disorders). Now who is going to decide what is bad and what is not bad
?

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pjscott
There are two things here that I wish were not socially accepted: the
demonization of even small amounts of body fat, and banning content you
dislike "for their own good".

~~~
BadCookie
How do you feel about someone livecasting their own suicide, then, to take
your position to an extreme?

~~~
pjscott
I consider suicide extremely sad, and would not feel particularly inclined to
watch the video. Why are we even thinking about censorship in this
hypothetical scenario? What good would censoring the video do?

Put a warning on it saying that it's NSFL, maybe run a free banner ad next to
it for a suicide prevention hotline. Those things are reasonable, productive
responses. Censorship of the video would be as symbolic as waving a flag, and
about as useful.

~~~
BadCookie
It is not just a hypothetical. See [http://news.cnet.com/report-teen-commits-
suicide-on-justin-t...](http://news.cnet.com/report-teen-commits-suicide-on-
justin-tv/)

Censoring the video may actually have prevented the suicide, because viewers
were egging him on. It's hard to know.

------
orbitingpluto
Anyone see an emerging problem here?

1)Increasingly the only places to talk are privately owned.

2)Private interests can control and prevent speech if in their domain.

Also, just wondering if Tumblr is going to be removing Tumblr blogs that have
their own domains?

~~~
blvr
_> 1)Increasingly the only places to talk are privately owned._

What public places did we have to talk in forty years ago that we don't have
now?

 _> 2)Private interests can control and prevent speech if in their domain._

If you own an newspaper/magazine/website/whatever you have a right to exercise
editorial control over it. That's always been the case.

~~~
orbitingpluto
1) Perhaps I should have said proportionally. More importantly, online speech
didn't exist 40 years ago. And it's all happening on someone else's privately
owned infrastructure to some degree.

2) We live in a world where community events are now happening in malls.
Formerly publicly owned halls have been sold off. Parks have been turned into
condos with civil planning concessions of 'public' play areas and child care
provisions. This should be increasingly apparent where population density is
higher and/or the funds to maintain public spaces is harder to come by.

~~~
blvr
_> 1) Perhaps I should have said proportionally._

I don't see how that's a problem. If I had a vegetable garden and this year
was a bumper year for carrots I wouldn't be complaining that there's
proportionally less potatoes.

~~~
orbitingpluto
So let me get this straight, potatoes are free speech and carrots are lack of
free speech?

Um, pass the potatoes?

------
jrockway
The lubricant has been applied to the slope...

~~~
potatolicious
I don't think this is necessarily a slippery slope.

AFAIK (I may be wrong though) this isn't due to external pressure or some PR
fiasco (coughreddit), this is something Tumblr has decided did not reflect
their company ethic, and wants off their platform.

The difference between this and reddit's last run-in with offensive content is
that Tumblr has shown no weakness here, whereas Reddit more than proved that a
sufficiently large PR catastrophe is all it takes to change site policy.

What Reddit has encouraged is more boycotts and more PR shitstorms from 3rd
parties hoping to affect change on the site. Tumblr, by acting proactively,
has not opened these doors (yet). They are still their own arbiters of good
taste, as opposed to opening the floodgates of mob-rule.

~~~
kstenerud
I seriously doubt people will quit Tumblr en masse over the site falling afoul
of someone's pet cause.

This is Tumblr as a company applying its morality upon the blogs it hosts. And
in doing so it is completely within its rights.

~~~
pjscott
Yes, of _course_ Tumblr is acting within its rights. I've checked over the
thread, and I don't see anybody suggesting otherwise.

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rhizome
Yet Tumblr still looks like crap on Android.

