Users can now report hate speech directly in the mobile app through the small paper airplane icon on the bottom right-hand side of a post. Tap “report” and then tap “something else,” which will take you to a list of more specific violations, including hate speech.
“The internet is being exploited by hate groups to organize, recruit, and radicalize with horrifying efficiency,” Tumblr writes in explanation for why it’s updating the hate speech guideline, likely referring to alt-right groups and other radical groups online. The guidelines will also be used to remove Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ+ content.
The platform is also responding to posts that glorify mass murders, like Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland, which “could inspire copycat violence.” The section in community guidelines that address Gore and Mutilation now also explicitly bans violent content that “encourages or incites violence” or glorifies the perpetrators.
And to address the spread of revenge porn and deepfakes, where people use AI to swap people’s faces into pornographic videos, Tumblr is now explicitly saying that users can’t “engage in the unwanted sexualization or sexual harassment of others.” It’s a small line that’s expressly aimed at banning non-consensual images.