Tumblr Tinkers With Harassment Policies

Since the widespread emergence of social media, no technology has played as important a role in our daily lives as the blog. By empowering individuals to produce content about anything they want at anytime they want, blogs have changed not only the way in which media is distributed, but also how it is consumed. Even the White House has a blog.

Of course, for all the good that blogging has done in deconstructing traditional media, it has led to a number of problems as well. With the anonymity of the web, blogs are the perfect vehicles for impersonation, slander, and harassment.  Recently, the popular blogging platform Tumblr made waves in the tech community when it shut down several popular “tumblelogs” for these very reasons.

Apparently, Tumblr closed five blogs for allegedly using the site’s “reblog” feature to post critical comments of popular Internet celebrity Julia Allison. The official explanation from Tumblr for the closures was a change in the site’s content policy to include the following provision: “Accounts with the sole or primary purpose of repeatedly harassing or abusing specific members or groups within the Tumblr community will be suspended.”

Naturally, this caused a firestorm of criticism from the tech community toward Tumblr leading to Tumblr founder David Karp to redact the policy with apologies the following day. For a full recap of the situation, including the subsequent apology, Robert Mackey detailed the entire story at The Lede Blog for NYTimes.com.

One interesting point from Mackey’s article that is worth repeating comes from Silicon Valley Insider writer Eric Krangel. In a post from September of last year, Krangel wrote about the danger of “anonybloggers” on Tumblr.

From the article:

Here’s how anonyblogging works: let’s say johndoe.tumblr.com is your target. You create a free account called “johndoesucks” (or whatever, the cruder the better), then “follow” John’s blog. Obsessively “reblog” every post John makes, adding snarky, mean, or outright profane commentary. Tumblr’s “dashboard” system means that people follow John will likely see the nasty comments. It’s the equivalent of watching someone shout at your pal as he walks down the street. But what makes the attack so unpleasant is that there’s no way for John to shake a malicious anonyblogger.

Since Tumblr accounts are both free and quick to set up, it’s easy to see how anonyblogging can get out of hand. And it has. Disagree with John’s politics but too cowardly to confront him head-on? Start an anonyblog. Heard a third-hand report John slept with a girl at a Tumblr meetup and never called her again? Start an anonyblog.

As social media technologies continue to evolve, the issues that Tumblr is now facing will become more and more prevalent. As such, it is important that individuals implement safeguards to protect themselves from Internet defamation and be proactive in managing their online reputation.

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