Tumblr Removed From App Store Over Failure to Filter Out Child Pornography

Tuesday November 20, 2018 3:23 AM PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple removed Tumblr from the iOS App Store late last week because the Yahoo-owned social network failed to filter prohibited content, it emerged today.

The Tumblr app for iPhone and iPad went missing from the App Store on Friday, November 16. Shortly afterwards, Tumblr announced that it was "working to resolve an issue" with the app, but stopped short of explaining the problem.


It wasn't until Download.com approached Tumblr with sources claiming child pornography had been found on the service, that the social network issued a statement providing more information.

In its statement, Tumblr said that every image uploaded to the service is "scanned against an industry database of known child sexual abuse material," and images that are detected never reach the platform. However, a "routine audit" had revealed content that had not yet been included in the industry database, and Tumblr had acted "immediately" to remove it.

"Content safeguards are a challenging aspect of operating scaled platforms," it added. "We're continuously assessing further steps we can take to improve and there is no higher priority for our team."

This isn't the first time a popular app has been removed from the App Store for prohibited content. In February, Apple pulled encrypted messenger app Telegram from its store for violating Apple's iOS developer guidelines, which require all apps that host user-generated content include a method for filtering objectionable material from being posted.

When Telegram fell foul of Apple's guidelines, the app was back on the App Store within 24 hours. Tumblr said getting its app reinstated is its "top priority," yet it continues to be unavailable for iOS devices, although Android users can still download Tumblr via the Google Play Store.

(Via The Verge.)

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: App Store, Tumblr
84 comments

Top Rated Comments

(View all)
Avatar
Pakaku
13 months ago

We should remove safari too as you can find child pornography using that app!!

Tumblr is not a web browser, they're a website in control of their content (or at least tries to be)

this sort of argument is silly and makes no sense at all
Rating: 23 Votes
Avatar
freddiebarnes
13 months ago
They better remove Twitter and Facebook and every other social media platform. They also better remove Safari. You can find lots of bad things searching on Apple’s own Safari.
Rating: 20 Votes
Avatar
jonnysods
13 months ago
What about web browsers?

Definitely not excusing their behaviour!! Just unsure about the logic.
Rating: 19 Votes
Avatar
perspective002
13 months ago

They better remove Twitter and Facebook and every other social media platform. They also better remove Safari. You can find lots of bad things searching on Apple’s own Safari.


You know that Safari isn’t the one hosting that content on their servers right? Do you not understand how the internet works? There’s a reason that content hosting websites and internet browsers are extremely different.

To be clear, content providers are actually held responsible for what they house on their servers. If it’s illegal content, they can be held responsible. Apple made the right move.

Also, if child porn was found to be unfiltered on Facebook or Twitter, it’d be a much bigger story than this. Not all “bad things” you find is illegal content.
Rating: 17 Votes
Avatar
jsmith189
13 months ago
Are the "ban Safari" crew being purposely facetious?

Apple aren't "in charge" or what you see in Safari. Guess we should remove the iPhone cameras then, to stop people from taking the photos. Or maybe just get rid of iPhones altogether, since there's a possibility that the user will store child pornography in the camera roll. We can't completely ban everything just because there's the potential that someone could misuse it - we can, however, hold services directly responsible for their hosted content. If Safari was a service that could be used, that would be different. If iCloud was a public gallery that hosted public content, that would be different.

Apple took steps to hold a company accountable for the content that they are directly hosting and their refusal to remove said content. I saw someone underage on Tumblr just last week, and despite blocking the account my reporting of it was met with silence. While Tumblr can't/shouldn't be held responsible for the upload, they should be held responsible for the removal. This move should be applauded, not met with criticism.
Rating: 16 Votes
Avatar
breather
13 months ago
Tumblr and Pinterest is a scourge on the internet.
Rating: 14 Votes
Avatar
Someyoungguy
13 months ago

Formalities our of the way - yes it’s awful.
On point. Of course it makes sense, you’re just choosing not to see it. If Apple wanted to they could implement software in Safari to try and filter it out. Apple are in charge of what you see in Safari, they ‘filtered out’ flash, they can control other aspects too.


That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works.
Rating: 12 Votes
Avatar
Keane16
13 months ago

What about web browsers?

Definitely not excusing their behaviour!! Just unsure about the logic.


This content is disgusting and actually makes the logic fail. But it's simple.

An example would be a parent, you can block apps based on content or can block built-in apps. Having rogue content like in this Tumblr situation makes the parental controls moot.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201304 ('https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201304#web-content')

I can make all "courage" jokes I want want, but the fact Google, who will know about this content too but has chosen to leave the app up on their store says it all. At first glance Apple looks like the bad guy here for removing the app. But for me it's the right move.
Rating: 12 Votes
Avatar
haruhiko
13 months ago
Ban Safari. Safari can display a lot of things even worse than Tumblr.
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
ProVideo
13 months ago
3-5 years ago if you reported some one for underage pornography it would be removed pretty quickly and you actually got a response from the mod that removed it thanking you for notifying them. Now you have to jump through hoops to report someone, never get a response, and it takes days or weeks for them to be banned, if they ever are. Since Tumblr was bought by Yahoo, who was bought by Verizon, the reporting and removing of illegal material has been horribly slow and inefficient. I'm glad Apple is doing this because Tumblr seems to need a huge kick to the head to make this a priority and no one else seems to carry enough weight to make them do anything about it.
Rating: 6 Votes
[ Read All Comments ]