CW: Brief child sexual abuse mention.

Is anyone else worried about this? Tumblr banned porn in 2018, and recently they’ve begun to restrict content even further. GFYCat banned porn. Imgur is also banning porn. Reddit doesn’t allow you to use it to host images on NSFW subs, and I’ll bet you anything they ban porn entirely within a year or so.

Where does that leave people who even just want to discuss adult content? Even if you think porn should disappear from society–and I would hardcore disagree with that–that’s not the only thing that’s getting caught up in this wave of censorship. On Tumblr, if you were sexually abused by an adult as a minor, you can no longer discuss this. Literally any reference to child sexual abuse by an adult is now banned on Tumblr. Even if you’re recounting something that happened to you. Hell, even if it’s fictional.

Where are you supposed to go now to discuss adult topics? Twitter is a fascist hellhole, but soon it’s going to be one of your only options, at least social media-wise. And even outright porn is getting harder to find. Your options now are basically the mainstream porn sites and the shit you have to do deep googling for, with nothing in between.

I find this very worrying. Even the vilest, most no-redeeming-social-value porn doesn’t deserve to be banished from the internet entirely. As long as someone gets something out of it and no one is harmed in its creation, porn has its place. But while decentralized alternatives are cropping up to replace social media, nobody seems to want to step up and make a place where we can all be horny without corporate influence.

Or maybe I’m just bitching that I don’t know where to find the good porn on Mastodon. Who knows. Regardless, I think there’s a worthwhile discussion to be had about the scouring of the internet of too risque for advertisers.

Edit: You know what, this person articulates it better than I ever could: https://devonprice.medium.com/mourning-porn-on-imgur-mourning-trans-kinky-history-64de2eaaa6ce

  •  Rentlar   ( @Rentlar@beehaw.org ) English
    7•1 year ago

    I agree partially, you could say that porn and nsfw stuff are leaving social media platforms that are trying to appeal to advertisers and shareholders. I know that major porn subreddits are disappearing taking out a big repository of it along with Imgur’s takedown. The CombatFootage subreddit is the only one that I might personally miss from a shutdown. I believe high quality documentation of war is important to highlight the dangers and tragedy of war/conflict at a closeup level.

    There is still a lot of it across the internet if you know where to look. After all, the internet is for porn.

    I don’t care for porn pretty much at all, but I recognize people have needs. I think it’s fine to have those communities but within their own time and place. It’s hard if not impossible to have a nuanced, intelligent conversation with people in horny mode. It would be like having a town hall where participants rub their genitals while speaking.

    I’m sure a group will come up something once porn gets banned.