phiLOLZophy: Tumblr is Wrong for Censoring Eating Disorder Blogs

February 23, 2012

I haven’t studied or experienced eating disorders, so I’ll tread cautiously in anything I say about this issue—but I have studied media and society, and from that perspective I appreciate the suggestion that the way people interact with media is complex, and the effects of media aren’t always what they seem to “obviously” be. This is a tricky case, because these blogging communities are interactive, not just top-down: you could say that watching violent movies doesn’t make someone violent while still arguing that participating in a community of support can lead to codependence and shore up distorted perceptions of reality. It’s a tough issue, and I hope that before making this decision, Tumblr looked at whatever research there’s been into these communities…there may not be much. Hopefully, if nothing else, this move on Tumblr’s part will open up dialogue about eating disorders and their complex causes. Of course, it would also be nice to think that Rihanna’s decision to collaborate with Chris Brown would open up dialogue about why women (and men) return to abusive relationships rather than just a flurry of angry tweets saying how stupid Rihanna is, but I’ve only seen the angry tweets.

In this particular case, my hunch is that Tumblr is responding to a more specific stimulus than a general concern for their users’ welfare. Will Tumblr be the next Twitter, or will it be the next MySpace? Tumblr’s creators and investors want to see the platform grow and become mainstream, and a huge scandal over eating-disorder blogs would certainly throw a wrench in that, whatever the psychological complexities might be. I agree with the PhiLOLZophers that this move puts Tumblr in a content-moderation position that it would be least complicated (and ethically simplest, if not necessarily best) to just avoid altogether—but some kind of moderation was probably inevitable eventually. I hope this situation leads to more discussion about the issues the PhiLOLZophers raise, by people better-informed about eating disorders and their causes than I am.

philolzophy:

Tumblr is shutting down blogs that promote self-harm. This means pro-anorexia, pro-bulimia, and pro-self harm blogs are dunzo.

I have to believe this is because of the misconception that these communities are about encouraging people to have eating disorders and causing existing eating…