Tumblr suddenly went missing from the AppStore a few days back, though no statement by either companies were issued over the disappearance. Now, a report from Download.com has revealed the reason as to why the social media app went missing from the App Store.
According to the report, Tumblr was removed from the AppStore because some images showing child pornography appeared on website. The report further claims that the cause of disappearance was confirmed by independent sources within the company.
“As this is an industry-wide problem, we work collaboratively with our industry peers and partners like [the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children] (NCMEC) to actively monitor content uploaded to the platform. Every image uploaded to Tumblr is scanned against an industry database of known child sexual abuse material, and images that are detected never reach the platform. A routine audit discovered content on our platform that had not yet been included in the industry database. We immediately removed this content. Content safeguards are a challenging aspect of operating scaled platforms. We’re continuously assessing further steps we can take to improve and there is no higher priority for our team,” said Tumblr in a statement.
Just like other websites, Tumblr scans images that users upload. Though in this case, these images depicting child sexual abuse somehow got through the website’s filters. The social network is now reportedly deleting all kinds of NSFW blogs, even those not related to child pornography. Apple has laid down clear iOS guidelines that all apps must have content filter to detect such material, and it appears the Yahoo-owned app doesn’t have enough tools yet.
Tumblr notes that getting back to the AppStore is now its number one priority, however, it didn’t reveal an exact timeframe when it’ll be back. Tumblr is infamously tolerant of NSFW and adult-oriented content, which also led to its brief ban in Indonesia. As back in 2016, the Indonesian government banned the site for a while over pornography content.
