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Tumblr to Allow 'Naked Human Form' on the Site -- With Some Rules

The platform, which once allowed porn, has a new policy around images containing nudity.

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2 min read
Tumblr logo on a phone with company name on a screen behind it

Tumblr will again allow users to post imagery of nakedness, but with some conditions.

Pavlo Gonchar/Getty Images

Social media site Tumblr is again permitting users to post nudity on the platform, the company said in a blog post Tuesday. While jokes still abound about its former policy on "female-presenting nipples," the site just gave the green light to adult-themed content, as long as it's tagged using Tumblr's new community label feature.

"We now welcome a broader range of expression, creativity, and art on Tumblr, including content depicting the human form (yes, that includes the naked human form)," the company said in its post.

Community labels let users set preferences and filters for the type of content they see in their dashboard feeds, and there are new rules surrounding how posts are created. When adding, editing or reblogging a Tumblr post containing nudity, sexual themes, or content meant for a mature audience, users must add a community label. A Mature tag acts as a default label and can be used by itself or with the site's Violent; Drug and Alcohol Addiction; or Sexual Themes tags. According to Tumblr, all posts marked with a community label will automatically be tagged as Mature. 

Posts labeled Mature won't appear in the feeds of users under 18. Any user can suggest that a piece of content receive a community label, and those recommendations will be routed to a Tumblr moderator who can add one. If a moderator adds a tag, the person who posted the content won't be able to remove that tag.

Despite the change regarding nudity, Tumblr said in its post that "visual depictions of sexually explicit acts remain off-limits."

Once a social platform where pornography was allowed, Tumblr changed course and enacted a ban on such content in 2018.