Popular image sharing platform Imgur stops distributing pornography. In its blog, the site reported that the new terms of service will come into effect on May 15. According to them, the platform will be deleted “[фото] nudity, pornography, and sexually explicit material,” as well as “old, unused, and inactive content not tied to a user account.” Any images that do not meet the criteria are recommended to be stored elsewhere.
The announcement did not detail how Imgur would define “old, unused, and inactive content.” The accuracy of this definition will be significantly affected by the coverage of a huge number of non-pornographic images. Their removal may affect forums and other communities that link to Imgur content.
In the past, Imgur had a two-tiered approach to sexual content. The rules have long prohibited downloading them for viewing on the site, but content can be downloaded for access directly via its URL.
Imgur claims that explicit images (as well as illegal content) have “historically posed a risk to the Imgur community and its business.” Today’s web platforms rely on a large network of partners, and everyone from payment systems to app stores have historically been wary of working with services that offer direct access to adult content.
The company says a combination of automated systems and human moderators will be used to detect explicit content on Imgur, adding that “artistic nudity” will still be allowed. Noting that drawing a line between the two groups can be difficult, Imgur suggests that users contact the service if they are banned from “uploading content that is falsely labeled as explicit.” Tumblr made a similar move in 2018, despite community protests. However, some of the content was later allowed again.
In removing the display of the 2019 sections, Imgur stressed that no content would be removed or moved, that links to the content would remain functional, and that any legal explicit content could be uploaded to the server as long as it was not displayed in a public gallery. In less than 4 years, these promises turned out to be invalid.
Tumblr has allowed nudity and adult content to be posted again, but porn is still banned
Source: The Verge
