Tumblr restores several accounts banned by automated moderation tool
What's the story
Tumblr users were left in a state of panic on Wednesday, after an automated system banned dozens of accounts in a single afternoon. The mass bans appeared to disproportionately affect trans women accounts, with many users receiving no explanation for their account terminations. Screenshots of the ban notification emails indicated that this action was taken as the result of an internally-generated report, and automated means may have been used to identify the content at issue.
Company response
Bans were mistakes, says head of communications
Chenda Ngak, the head of communications at Tumblr's parent company Automattic, confirmed the bans but said many were mistakes that have now been reversed. "We continuously work to maintain platform health and adapt our systems to prevent bad actors from spreading harm," she said. "In that process, our automated system has incorrectly flagged several users, including, but not limited to, members of the trans community."
Speculation
Bans followed Tumblr's reversal of controversial reblog change
The mass bans came a day after Tumblr reversed a controversial change to its reblogging system, which had sparked outrage among users. Some speculated that the bans could be related to posts opposing this change. However, Ngak clarified that "the reported terminated accounts are not related to the recent discussion about reblogs," and "there is no evidence that trans users were disproportionately among the sub-200 accounts impacted."
Previous issues
Tumblr faced content moderation issues before
This isn't the first time Tumblr has faced automated content moderation issues. In 2022, it settled with New York City's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) over discrimination allegations from an adult content ban in 2018. The ban, which was introduced by Verizon before Automattic acquired Tumblr in 2019, had accuracy issues and reportedly disproportionately affected LGBTQ+ content. The CCHR settlement mandated a review of Tumblr's moderation algorithms, and changes to its user appeals process to address algorithmic bias.