Haywire Tumblr Porn Ban Algorithm Snags Jesus, Wonder Woman Pics

Just two days after the social media “microblogging” site Tumblr announced that it would ban all “adult content,” as AVN.com chronicled, reports have surfaced claiming that the Tumblr algorithms designed to block porn uploads are stopping images that should not be classified as “adult,” such as illustrations of Jesus, and the DC Comics superhero Wonder Woman. The out-of-control image censorship software is creating havoc already, despite Tumblr’s announcement that the porn ban will not go into effect until December 17, according to a Guardian report.  Actor Wil Wheaton tested the Tumblr algorithm by posting the results of an image search for the phrase, “beautiful men kissing.” According a post by Wheaton, the post depicting several photos of men kissing was “flagged within 30 seconds.”  “These images are not explicit. These pictures show two adults, engaging in consensual kissing. That’s it,” Wheaton wrote on his own Tumblr blog. “It isn’t violent, it isn’t pornographic. It’s literally just two adult humans sharing a kiss. It’s ludicrous and insulting that—especially in 2018—this is flagged, either by some sort of badly-designed algorithm, or by shitty homophobic people.” According to the Guardian report, “other users chronicled flagged posts, including historical images of (clothed) women of colour, a photoset of the actor Sebastian Stan wearing a selection of suits with no socks on, an oil painting of Christ wearing a loincloth, a still of ballet dancers and a drawing of Wonder Woman carrying fellow superhero Harley Quinn.” Cartoonist Erika Moen posted on her Twitter account that Tumblr had flagged three mages of herself—for no apparent reason. The site also flagged a post of a flower vase. “I just went through the 12 most recent pages of my Tumblr archive and these were the only three photos flagged. Two photos of me fully clothed and a picture of my vase,” she wrote. “Another artist’s illustration of a witch floating among kelp was also incorrectly flagged,” the site The Verge noted. “Yet another artist saw their illustrations of people running around and swimming get flagged.” In announcing the porn ban, Tumblr CEO Jeff D’Onofrio acknowledged that he expected the site’s algorithms to block some posts in error.  “We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes,” he wrote. “Computers are better than humans at scaling process—and we need them for that—but they’re not as good at making nuanced, contextual decisions.” While D’Onofrio said that Tumblr was “committed to getting this right,” he specified no clear measures to prevent the site from blocking non-porn images. Photo By ABC Television / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain