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Tumblr Dropped From Apple Store After Child Pornography Detected

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A few days after Tumblr's disappearance from the iOS App Store, the platform has revealed the reason to puzzled users: its preventative systems apparently failed to catch some amount of child pornography in its pages.

On Monday, Tumblr acknowledged in an online post that its iOS app had been taken down because of child pornography detected on the platform. According to The Verge, the platform didn't acknowledge the reason at first, but issued a new statement on the matter after Download.com cited sources who claimed child pornography was to blame.

On Friday, November 16, the Tumblr platform was reported to be unavailable on Apple's app store, without a reason given at the time. Over the weekend, some users who post adult-themed content to the platform reportedly found their blogs deleted without warning,

As Gizmodo reported, updates on the platform’s official help page suggest that Tumblr employees have been working to resolve the issue with Apple for several days. Last night, Tumblr posted the following update:

We continue to work to restore our app to the iOS App Store. As we do, here is more information on what’s happening. [...]

Every image uploaded to Tumblr is scanned against an industry database of known child sexual abuse material, and images that are detected never reach the platform. A routine audit discovered content on our platform that had not yet been included in the industry database. We immediately removed this content. Content safeguards are a challenging aspect of operating scaled platforms. We’re continuously assessing further steps we can take to improve and there is no higher priority for our team.

See also: Facebook And Instagram Are Down In Second Snag This Week

As Gizmodo pointed out, "Tumblr’s phrasing suggests this may have been entirely new content originating on the platform—the scale of which, and number of users involved, is currently unknown. It’s also unclear whether Tumblr voluntarily pulled its iOS app or if Apple made that decision as a safeguard."

For years, Tumblr has been known not only for its fashion, art, and food content, but as a popular choice for social media users' sexier and generally NSFW blogs.

In order to prevent illegal adult content from being hosted on the site (including certain violent or underage content), Tumblr has reportedly put numerous AI-enhanced safeguards in place, but which apparently failed to catch content in violation of Apple's developer guidelines in this instance.

Tumblr has been reached out to for comment, which will be included here when and if available.

[h/t The Verge]

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