Stream 1: Communities and Web 2.0 Agnes Fonda (19772770) NSFW vs Tumblr: The Flagging of a Whole Community ABSTRACT The NSFW (Not Safe for Work) hashtag has long been labelled pornographic on various social media sites leading to their ban. One social media network, Tumblr, however previously provided a safe platform for such a community to exist due to its platform’s ability to be inclusive of all. Providing the members of this the community of the NSFW hashtag with a way to self-discover, share, and compliment one another. The site allowed this information to flow with positive reinforcement and even include users whose blogs were not exclusively based around the NSFW community to share nude content. Nudity was the driver of Tumblr. However, after controversies regarding these communities and the information that they were sharing the social networking site has decided to ban nudity, leading to a major decline in the usage of Tumblr. Child pornography was the major driver of this decision. This has caused the ban of the NSFW community on Tumblr, which lead to the loss of the company’s image as well as forced this community to search for new platforms to exist on. In this paper, I will discuss the reason of Tumblr’s popularity with such a community, the way the platform enabled this community to exist, the controversies between Tumblr and the NSFW communities, which emerging platform did the majority of this community migrate to and finally the question that was raised by many, “Is Tumblr dead?”. Key Words: NSFW, community, Tumblr, hashtag, social media networks, third place, controversies, society, sex, pornography, nudity, self-expression, self- exploration. INTRODUCTION TO NSFW AND TUMBLR Looking at the functioning of the NSFW community online, we first do have to understand the meaning behind the hashtag. The abbreviation NSFW stands for Not Safe for Work, this reflecting on the dominant ideologies and the values of society within and outside of the internet. In this context ‘work’ is mostly imagined in an office, department, education, or various other environment relating to white-collar jobs. This further explains the beginning of the abbreviation, meaning that to interact in this community while at work could result in negative consequences, such as a warning or even the loss of the job. This highlights the definition of work within society to be standardised as an office desk job, furthermore representing the negative connotations society has against nudity and pornography. Due to this main presentation of pornography to be shameful, the discussion of people’s sexuality offline and online is often Agnes Fonda [19772770] Assignment 1: Conference Final Page !1 looked down upon. According to Vex Ahsley’s article (2019) “What turns us on is confined to our deleted porn search history, away from polite society.” It is shameful as per dominant society’s ideologies to discuss sexual identity exploration with others. NSFW communities in opposition to this statement feel free to express their naked bodies and sexual desires online in order to self- discover and to explore other fantasies and experiences within the community. The platform, Tumblr, therefore, can be understood as a ‘third place’ for the users within this community. The concept third place was described as a “place in which sociability tends to emerge […] a generic designation for a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work [the so-called first and second places]” (Moore & Hankinson Gathman & Ducheneaut, 2009). As this is largely aimed at an offline situation, the description can be applied to certain virtual and online platforms. Tumblr acts as a ‘third place’ for the NSFW community as the activities do not take place at home nor at work. The community strictly only able to exist online. The emergence of hashtags on social media platforms including Tumblr has allowed people to create communities around multiple or one hashtag. This method to connect a community is often used online to communicate an idea and/or interests, share news, protests, and many more. As described by Burns and Burgess in 2011 “Senders include hashtags (brief keywords or abbreviations, prefixed with the hash symbol ‘#’) in their messages to mark them as addressing particular themes.” The NSFW hashtag is no other. Users who participate in #nsfw share an interest and desire for online pornography. This theme connects all the users engaging with the hashtag to a theme and therefore creates a community in reliance on the shared interests. The hashtag, therefore, creates a community. Furthermore, as most social media platforms enable the usage of hashtags, the community of the tag is fluid and able to adapt and function on other social media platforms. For example, the NSFW hashtag exists not just on Tumblr but also visible on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and even on the emerging platform TikTok (however, on this network it takes a different form). By this, the community is not just tied to a single platform but able to exist over multiple networks. The emergence of NSFW communities on such a network as Tumblr was ideal due to Tumblr’s structure of anonymity and pseudonymity. Users could upload any content they desired with hardly having any offline consequences or the visibility of the user’s actions on her non-anonymous online platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. The presentation of self is territorially bound. This applying to both offline and online communities that individuals engage in. For example, an individual would act differently in a family environment compared to one with friends. The family environment would perhaps be more formal and controlled compared to a context where the individual is out for drinks with her close friends. This is also applying to individuals’ online accounts. On Facebook Agnes Fonda [19772770] Assignment 1: Conference Final Page !2 for example, due to the person having their name displayed would, therefore, act formally while on Tumblr where they are using a pseudonym the user would feel less pressured to act the way they do on Facebook due to their content not being able to be traced back to their offline and other online presences. Therefore, the way a user presents oneself would rely on the context she is engaging in. (Nagel & Frith, 2015). Relying on this theory, users who engage/ engaged in the Tumblr NSFW community could have a different persona in the offline world or on another non-anonymous of pseudonymity platform. Tiindenberg (2019) in her studies concluded that some of the users within the Tumblr NSFW community included “parents, students, teachers, office managers, librarians, lawyers, or scientists off Tumblr.” This challenges the usual ideas and stereotypes of society towards such members of the NSFW community, to be perverts or sex workers. NSFW community was therefore for everyone who shared similar interests with the community behind the hashtag. Tumblr was an ideal and popular network amongst the online NSFW community. It allowed pornographic content on its platforms, in order to be inclusive of all communities and provide a chaotic environment for these communities to grow in. This lead to a variety of content available for Tumblr users. Fandoms and communities emerged around themes and interest, ranging from photography to Harry Potter fandom to pornography. As multiple previous users expressed, there was a community and fandom for everything. Katrin Tiinderberg in 2019 further explains the feeling of the entrance into Tumblr as “I found it like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.” The NSFW community due to Tumblr’s Terms and Conditions and its goal to be exclusive of all platforms could thrive on Tumblr. Members were able to connect and express their kinks and ideas in a community where they could connect with other users who were interested in the same themes and ideas. As sex is not frequently talked about outside of online environments, Tumblr created a safe platform, where through a hashtag a community was able to create a sense of belonging to marginalised users who could not discuss their ideas and self-identity towards their sexuality before. As one of the research participants of Tiindenberg explains, “‘I was desperate for community, as a queer, non-monogamous, kinky, feminist woman, I had always felt alone, and on Tumblr I found a language to express myself and it made me feel more secure about my identities’. Furthermore, NSFW communities are more than just regular porn, in the sense that the users posting to the hashtag would create sexual images and videos themselves, not being afraid of society’s expectations of what a pornography actor must act and look like. Instead of curvy, yet skinny, Caucasian, blue-eyed girls, users shared images of themselves, even if they were fatter, darker, or had different body forms opposite to standard society’s beauty expectations. As stated by Ori Schwarz in 2010 “Online publication only empowers the photographers, giving them control over the representation of their own life.” in the NSFW community this was statement could be applied to as the users posting would do it for their own empowerment and to show their own representation. A statement that was made by saying ‘yes I am different, but I am beautiful’. The community formed as users would Agnes Fonda [19772770] Assignment 1: Conference Final Page !3 first see the other member’s body and sexual fantasies and desires and could message them anonymously or reblog their images with a comment attached to it. People in such a community felt closer, forming close relationships due to their share of experiences. RIP THE “OLD TUMBLR” Fast forward to December 2018, Tumblr announced the banning of “‘photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content [ …] that depicts sex acts’” (Tumblr, 2018).