Why did Tumblr blacklist seemingly harmless 'submit' and 'sad' tags?

Because the blog service Tumblr 'follows the guidelines of the App Store', 'submission', 'girl', 'sad', 'suicide prevention', and 'testicular cancer' It turned out that a seemingly harmless tag such as 'testicular cancer' was put on the blacklist. Former Tumblr iOS software engineers have inferred from their own experience that the display of content containing such tags will be restricted.

sreegs — alright let's talk about Apple and Tumblr's ...
https://sreegs.tumblr.com/post/671649355334336512/alright-lets-talk-about-apple-and-tumblrs

App Store review process'perplexing, random, asinine' ―― 9to5Mac
https://9to5mac.com/2021/12/28/app-store-review-process-problems/

Tumblr goes overboard censoring tags on iOS to comply with Apple's guidelines --The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/28/22856734/tumblr-censor-tags-ios-apple-guidelines

Tumblr went into service in 2007 and became part of Verizon Communications after being acquired by Yahoo! in 2017. However, due to the total ban on adult content in 2018, the number of accesses dropped sharply and business performance was sluggish. Verizon Communications was looking for a buyer and was acquired by WordPress operator Automattic in 2019.

It turns out that the number of user visits to Tumblr, which completely banned adult content, has decreased by 150 million --GIGAZINE

On December 21, 2021, Tumblr said, 'In order to comply with Apple's strict safety guidelines, this iOS update will make a difference in recommendations and search terms for certain types of delicate content.' Was announced . Specifically, this means that some tags have been blacklisted, which affects the user's content search and the 'Stuff for You' and 'Following' sections that are displayed to the user. It has become.

In Tumblr, tags are what users use to search for posts. With a new iOS update, posts tagged with censored tags no longer appear on users' dashboards and search pages. The problem with this is that the list of censored tags contains the seemingly innocuous word 'submit'. In addition to 'submission', submission also means 'surrender' and 'obedience', and it is said that a large amount of content of 'BDSM', a type of SM play using this tag, is posted on Tumblr. In other words, the seemingly innocuous word submission was a companion to the move to wipe out adult content from Tumblr.

they blacklist the tag 'submission', presumably because there's a bunch of BDSM posts with it

— Foone (@Foone) December 26, 2021

the Tumblr user named Bannedtags Google documents keeps track of the tag that has been blocked in, in addition to the submission 'girl (girl),' 'sad (sad),' 'Alec Lightwood (drama' Shadow Hunter character ')' ' These include words such as 'single dad,' 'single mom,' 'suicide prevention,' and 'testicular cancer.' These tags are believed to have been banned because they are considered harmful to those in need.

Former Tumblr iOS software engineer points out the root of the problem with the seemingly mysterious response. According to what the engineer said on the Tumblr blog called sreegs, the reason why Tumblr had to take the above measures is thought to be the App Store review process.

Apple has an automatic and manual review process for registering your app on the App Store. This review process primarily looks to see if your app meets the following two requirements:

(1) Whether it is a functioning program that is not malware
(2) Whether the program meets the App Store review guidelines

The review also looks at 'whether the app has pornography', and if there is any that corresponds to pornography, the developer is requested to remove it. And since the review of the presence or absence of pornography is done by human hands, it depends on the reviewer's arbitrary judgment, and sometimes it is required to delete those that do not correspond to pornography. Also, in the case of apps such as Tumblr that mainly use user-generated content, there are cases where pornographic content cannot be excluded even if tags directly related to pornography are prohibited. Against this background, Tumblr had to blacklist even seemingly harmless tags. For large-scale apps such as Instagram and Twitter, you can set up a dedicated institution for dealing with Apple and moderation, but for apps that do not have a large budget, prepare a specialized moderation institution. The reason is that it cannot be done.

There are other developers besides Tumblr who are dissatisfied with the App Store review process. Even iOS developers who agreed with Apple in a proceeding between Apple and Epic Games over a 30% fee in the App Store said, 'Apple should loosen control of the App Store a bit.' The former developer of Tumblr spells it out.