Tumblr Founder David Karp Defends Porn on the Site - UPDATED

LOS ANGELES—In a slightly awkward but still hilarious segment with Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp, Stephen Colbert put the young billionaire on the spot about the amount of porn on the microblogging megasite now owned by Yahoo, getting Karp to admit that he has no interest in policing the place to remove porn. However, Colbert also asked Karp about the NSA in an exchange that was a tad more uncomfortable for his guest as he tried to explain what he would do if the government came knocking. But what he doesn't realize is that the government has already come knocking, by way of 18 U.S.C. §2257, the federal labeling and record-keeping law. If he had know what it was, Colbert could have asked Karp about Tumblr’s complete disregard for 2257, which its users violate every day, putting them at risk of a potential five-year prison term, but Colbert, like most people, is utterly unaware of its existence. Reprinted below is the conversation starting with the question about the porn. The actual video can be watched here. Colbert: Let’s talk about the elephant in the room with Tumblr, okay? And let me paint a picture of the elephant—it’s on its back and its legs are spread. It’s porn central. There’s a ton of porn on it. Karp: It’s got everything. Colbert: There’s a lot of everything on there. Is that going to stay on there? Karp: Look, we've taken a pretty hard line on freedom of speech, supporting our users, creation, whatever that looks like, and it's just not something that we want to police. When you have somebody like Terry Richardson or any number of very talented photographers posting tasteful photography, I don't want to have to go in there to draw the line between this photo and the behind-the-scenes photo of lady gaga and, like, her nip. Colbert: I’m not sure. I think I may have to bleep that. All right, you’re a big time player in the internet now, in Yahoo. NSA comes to you, National Security Agency comes to you and says, “Give us all of the information on your people. We think one of those guys posting nip slips of Lady Gaga is planning bad stuff, so we have to have all the information on everyone on your site.” What do you say? Karp: That’s a complicated question, Stephen. You’re putting me on the spot. Colbert: Yes, or no? I’m the NSA. “Hey you, we will turn you into Qualcomm, okay? We’re going to MySpace your ass unless you give us the information. We’re not playing tiddlywinks here, buddy.” Karp: We don’t want to give you anything that is not in the best interest of our users, and we’ve fought for that for six years. Colbert: Just tell us what Stephen Colbert posts on his sites. Karp: Never. I don’t even know how to find you. Colbert: And you never will. Funny stuff, to be sure, but what is not amusing is the extent to which massive mainstream networks like Tumblr are either willfully or truly ignorant of the federal law that may exempt them under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act from having to keep 2257 records, but most certainly does not exempt their users, just like with any website that accepts user-generated content that triggers 2257. Tumblr provides no mention of 2257 in its Terms of Service, however, which means that its users will largely remain ignorant of the requirements of the law, which of course does not excuse them from their obligations. Even if they are aware of it, though, the site provides no means for them to comply with it, leaving them dangling in the wind.   Though it certainly does not prohibit it, Tumblr doesn't exactly encourage the posting of sexually explicit videos to the site, preferring instead to suggest that people upload them to a tube site that also ignores 2257. Its Community Guidelines state: Uploading Sexually Explicit Video. You can embed anything as long as it follows the other guidelines on this page. But please don't use Tumblr's Upload Video feature to host any sexually explicit videos. We're not in the business of profiting from adult-oriented videos and hosting this stuff is fucking expensive. You can use services like xHamster to host those instead. Tumblr lawyers were not present in the Philadelphia courtroom last month to watch the proceedings in Free Speech Coalition v. Holder, and neither were lawyers for Yahoo, but maybe they should have been, because the outcome of that case could very well impact their businesses in a big way whether they choose to acknowledge it or not. UPDATE It sounds like David Karp may have some truthiness issues. The Atlantic Wire is now reporting that a "crackdown" on porn on the site is already underway, only instead of policing the site, which Karp said he did not want to do, new policies announced today indicate that porn will now simply be all but shuttered away out of sight. "There are now two different classifications for blogs containing boobs and butts," reported the Wire.  * NSFW blogs contain ï»¿occasional nudity or mature/adult-oriented content. * Adult blogs contain substantial ï»¿nudity or mature/adult-oriented content. "The new system is easy enough to understand," continued Connor Simpson. "If your blog is the all-butts-all-the-time type, then you fall under the 'adult' label. If you post some penis every once in a while in between your steady diet of One Direction GIFS, then you fall under the 'NSFW' label.  "But nudie pictures will be almost impossible to find unless you already have a well-curated RSS feed or bookmark folder of Tumblr porn from now on," he added. "NSFW and adult content won't appear in search engine results (like Google or Yahoo or Bing) or Tumblr's tracked-tag searches." In his article, Simpson includes a chart that outlines the"new, very strict guidelines for naked picture posts," and adds as a final clarification, "Adult blogs are almost entirely walled-in, while NSFW-ers get a little more time in the yard." One look at the chart makes that abundantly and depressingly clear.