This is my surprised face

[owlmoose]

To the great shock of exactly nobody who has been involved in online fandom for any period of time, Verizon is looking to sell of Tumblr. I mean, really, who could have seen this coming? Who? *insert eye-roll emoji here*

Perhaps slightly more surprising is the one potential buyer to express public interest: PornHub. This is... not the worst idea, actually, assuming that PornHub would act as responsible stewards for the whole site, not just the adult content. Put in robust tagging, blocking, and search options, and it could work out very well. I do wonder what having a porn distributer for an owner would mean for things like apps and work blacklists, however.

I do wonder, though, if Verizon would want to sell to PornHub. Surely such a sale would not fit with the company's image of itself. On the other hand, money is money, and I have a hard time imagining many other options. Oh, capitalism.

Comments

[krait]

CALLED IT. I think everyone who was on LJ did, honestly.

If PornHub really buys out Tumblr, I will cackle like a hyaena and open a celebratory bottle of something that fizzes. All that fuss to "clean up" their "adult content" problem (heavy sarcasm quotes there - I have not forgotten their real problem was Nazis and illegal content) and the self-appointed moral stewards of Tumblr proclaiming loudly that they were on board with it!

[sarasa_cat]

Only slightly surprised about PornHub's interest but that could hurt the global tumblr community, especially in nations that aggressively ban and block porn websites. Right now, I can access tumblr without trouble from a handful of nations that have aggressively outlawed porn sites. That could easily change if Tumblr becomes a pornhub property. :/

[owlmoose]

Ah, I didn't realize that countries that are aggressive about blocking porn sites didn't already block Tumblr. That is absolutely a concern.

[worlds_of_smoke]

Oh man. Same. :/

I mean, I think that PornHub would be better wrt: Nazis and crap like that, but international blocking is definitely a concern too.

[worlds_of_smoke]

NOT EVEN SIX MONTHS. -cackles with glee-

I think that PornHub would be a good steward, simply because they seem like the types that wouldn't like Nazis or TERFs on their website and fuck knows that hellsite would be better if they got rid of those blogs.

I'm pretty sure Verizon wouldn't give two shits who they sell the site to, as long as they can get rid of the huge money loss they're currently having to absorb.

[owlmoose]

Do we have actual historical evidence that PornHub would be more likely to crack down on hate speech than Tumblr's current corporate masters? I don't know enough about the company to have an opinion on that.

[worlds_of_smoke]

Honestly, I don't know enough about the company either. I could be totally wrong about whether they'd crack down on Nazis or not. But, lbr, it wouldn't be hard to do better than Verizon.

[lassarina]

Yeahhhhhh. I mean, as someone said elsewhere, PornHub is kind of a hugely problematic fave in some places, but this would be fascinating.

[owlmoose]

While I can absolutely see the problems with PornHub or another porn hosting company as an owner of Tumblr, at least they would be different problems than we've had with more traditional Internet companies? I'm having a hard time imagining who else would want it.

[sepdet]

i'm seeing the usual I WILL TAKE MY GOODIES AND GO posts saying that Pornhub or rather the mystery company that owns it clsims ownership of anytihing posted on its website, which has been hell for sex workers having theit content stolen and shared for free.

I suspect this is two entirely different issues.

One is probably the usual "commercial site claims the right to promote the site via content posted on it and/or to earn income via the stuff posted on it with ads or whatever" which on dA was broken telephoned into the "they're selling your stuff to HotPocket!" scare. But you never know; we all remember Fanlib. It will be time to check the ToS.

The other issue sounds like pornhub is pretty bad about responding to content theft violations. Which again is probably fine, if not ideal: better that a site be lax and let the community do the "Credit the original artist! Here's their shop!" policing rather than crack down on fan content and transformative work.

I guess I'm sorting through my own thoughts about the post I linked to (which also has "I don't want my stuff associated with PORN!" Which, well, ok, that doesn't apply to most of us, although there's porn and there's porn.) I suspect the gripes in the comments/eplies to that post are not problems, or are common to any kind of third party commercial platform, but it's definitely worth checking the TOS closely, whoever takes Tumblr next, to make sure it's not a Fanlib type company.

[owlmoose]

I suspect the gripes in the comments/eplies to that post are not problems, or are common to any kind of third party commercial platform, but it's definitely worth checking the TOS closely, whoever takes Tumblr next, to make sure it's not a Fanlib type company.

With, again, not knowing anything about PornHub specifically, at first glance I agree with you -- it's probably the same copyright claim language that every website makes in order to display content, but a careful reading of the ToS will be required. Sale of a content hosting site always requires that level of caution, at the very least.