The creepy dude I can’t unfollow
To: support@tumblr.com
Fr: John Callender (jbc@jbcsystems.com)
Subject: Community Guidelines violation
Hi. I’d like to report a fellow Tumblr user for violation of Tumblr’s Community Guidelines. This user appears to have some sort of special access to my dashboard, where he has been repeatedly posting disturbing images of violence, suicide, and self-harm. I appear to be unable to stop this.
I don’t want to promote these posts any more than they already have been, but it’s important for you understand what I’m talking about. Here are links to a few of them. (Warning: They contain images that are graphic and disturbing.)
http://universalhorrorfilms.tumblr.com/post/50444456345
http://theconjuringmovie.tumblr.com/post/56818251610
These are the two that bothered me the most, but there have been many others. Presumably there will be more in the future.
Tumblr’s Community Guidelines prohibit the following activity:
Malicious Bigotry. Don’t actively promote violence or extreme hatred against individuals or groups, on the basis of… gender.
The posts in question appear to skew in a gender-specific fashion. I haven’t analyzed them in detail, but from the quick exposure I’ve had they appear to disproportionately depict women as the terrified victims of violence, while showing men as grinning perpetrators.
Granted, the sword-wielding woman in the first post linked to above is something of an exception. Whether these posts actually promote violence or hatred against women is a debatable point, so maybe we should give the posts a pass on that particular guideline. But the Community Guidelines also state:
Promotion and Glorification of Self-Harm. Don’t post content that actively promotes or glorifies self-harm. This includes content that urges or encourages readers to cut or injure themselves… or commit suicide rather than, e.g., seeking counseling or treatment… We aim to sustain Tumblr as a place that facilitates awareness, support and recovery, and to remove only those blogs that cross the line into active promotion or glorification of self-harm.
I think these posts do, in fact, cross the line into active promotion or glorification. Their dramatic depictions of violence, including the sword-wielding, blood-spattered young woman in the first image, and the dangling feet of the suicide victim in the second, are profoundly disturbing, and are presented with no hint that they are intended to promote awareness, support, or recovery. For Tumblr users who are struggling with issues of self-harm and suicide to encounter these images against their will and without warning could be extremely harmful.
The Community Guidelines continue:
Gore and Mutilation Content. Don’t post gore just to be shocking. Don’t showcase the mutilation or torture of human beings, animals, or their remains.
The posts in question clearly violate this guideline. The person responsible for these is posting gore intended to be shocking, showcasing the mutilation and torture of human beings, and depicting dead human remains.
Please enforce Tumblr’s Community Guidelines by restricting this user from posting this sort of content. At a minimum, let me know how I and other users who object to these posts can block them from appearing in our dashboards.
I’m not sure who the user responsible for these posts is, but from what I’ve read I think it might be this guy:
He reportedly makes these sorts of decisions at Tumblr. I could be wrong, though; he also posts to the blog at http://staff.tumblr.com, where he recently wrote this:
Making sure people aren’t surprised by content they find offensive is also incredibly important and we are always working to put more control in your hands.
So maybe it’s actually someone else who’s doing this. Regardless, it needs to stop. Please investigate and let me know what you find out. Thanks.
John Callender
jbc@jbcsystems.com
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/56886236641.
Tags: sponsored posts.
