Tumblr users faced trouble on Wednesday after an automated system banned dozens of accounts in a single afternoon. Many users contacted The Verge about the incident, claiming that the wave of restrictions was adversely affecting accounts run by users who identify as trans women, many of whom were given no specific reason as to why their accounts were terminated. “This action was taken as a result of an internally generated report. Automated means may be used to identify problematic content,” it said in a screenshot of the email some users received to notify them of the ban.
Chenda Ngac, head of communications at Tumblr’s parent company Automattic, confirmed the restrictions in a statement. The VergeBut said many were in error and were overturned. “We continually work to optimize our systems to maintain the health of the platform and prevent bad actors from spreading harm. In that process, our automated systems incorrectly flagged a number of users, including, but not limited to, members of the trans community. We have disabled that system and reinstated those users while we repair it. We sincerely apologize to everyone affected by this error.”
The wave of restrictions on Wednesday came just a day after Tumblr reversed a controversial change to its reblogging system earlier this week that sparked outrage among many of the platform’s users. Some users who contacted The Verge Suggestions were made that the bans may have been in response to posts voicing opposition to the change, but Ngak said, “The reported terminated accounts are not related to the recent discussion about the reblog.” Ngac also said that “there is no evidence that the fewer than 200 affected accounts disproportionately included trans users.”
However, many users contacted The Verge expressed concern about the history of moderation issues on Tumblr, some of which specifically involved trans users. In 2024, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg got into a public feud with a Tumblr user who associated with preestrogen and identified as trans. Predstrogen shared a frustrated post about the lack of action on Tumblr’s part in response to the alleged harassment, after which she ultimately posted that she hoped Tumblr’s CEO would have “an eternally painful death involving a car full of hammers that explodes multiple times and hammers go flying everywhere.” Predstrogen’s Tumblr account was later banned, but the controversy continued on other social platforms, where Mullenweg shared details of the private account, including the name of Predstrogen’s side blog on Tumblr.
This is not the first time that Tumblr has faced problems with automated content moderation. In 2022, it settled with the New York City Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) over discrimination allegations stemming from an adult content ban in 2018 that allegedly disproportionately affected LGBTQ+ content in addition to overall accuracy problems. The ban was put in place before Automattic’s 2019 acquisition of Tumblr, which was enforced by its previous owner Verizon. CCHR’s settlement required a review of Tumblr’s moderation algorithm and required Tumblr to make changes to its user appeals process to address algorithm bias.
Automattic has reduced plans for Tumblr in recent years. In 2023, after the site missed development targets, Mullenweg confirmed The Verge The “majority” of the platform’s non-support, security and moderation staff were being moved to other divisions.
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