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Tumblr Is Making Its Porn Disappear

You know what's isn't cool? Censorship.

When Yahoo! acquired Tumblr in May, panic and promises ensued. Marissa Mayer promised to "not screw it up" and to "let Tumblr be Tumblr." David Karp promised the site wouldn't "turn purple."

Users weren't so convinced—especially considering Yahoo! had just spent $1.1 billion dollars for a blogging platform that was 10 percent porn. Still, Mayer assured the Tumblr community not to worry.

Lo and behold, Tumblr has started cracking down on its porn blogs. Under the new content rules, any blog tagged "adult" will no longer show up on tags, meaning the blogs are unsearchable on Tumblr (or Google).

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What's more, the guidelines note that X-rated blogs that aren't flagged by users could be automatically flagged. In other words, Tumblr isn't deleting pornographic content, but it's making it really hard to find.

David Karp on the Colbert Report Tuesday said Tumblr was commited to freedom of expression.

When asked about all the "off brand" content on Tumblr this spring, Mayer suggested that young, edgy users were exactly who Yahoo! needed more of. "I think the richness and breadth of content available on Tumblr, even though it may not be as brand safe as what’s on our site, is what’s really exciting and allows us to reach even more users," she said.

The aging brand admitted it purchased Tumblr to help it seem cool again. But you know what's isn't cool? Censorship.

Squeezing out all the scandalous blogs is bound to alienate a lot of those young users the company was trying to court. So why the crackdown? Most likely, it's to placate advertisers. If Yahoo! wants make Tumblr profitable, it needs ad revenue.

Though David Karp once said the idea of ads made his stomach turn, sure enough, branded content started showing up in the Dashboard a couple months ago.

Last month, while at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in France, Karp was singing quite a different tune. He told advertisers there he was honored to be in their company, that they were more talented than anyone at the Tumblr office, and that ads could actually make Tumblr better. But don't worry, nothing's going to change.