CoanFeb 21, 2024
post-Gundam cryptography

the usual game of telephone is afoot, but apparently:

  • Tumblr flagged a trans woman's transition photos as explicit content and human moderation refused to overturn the decision
  • predstrogen (the woman mentioned) posted a jokey death threat involving a car covered in exploding hammers
  • Tumblr/Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, who is also a WordPress cofounder (and according to his Wikipedia article, "can type over 120 wpm") is having an ongoing and extended meltdown about said jokey death threat on his personal Tumblr, responding to anonymous asks from randos and spouting all sorts of bullshit
  • queer ex-Tumblr staff weigh in to explain how much this guy sucks
  • in conclusion, never trust a guy who keeps reminding you that he's a CEO. gullotine emoji.

further citations:

#Tumblr

Matt Mullenweg - Wikipedia

Feb 20, 2024 at 3:46pmWeb
Show threadpost-Gundam cryptographyFeb 20, 2024

oh and predstrogen is now banned for life ofc.

but go on, tell me again how federating with Tumblr and WordPress corporate sites is an unalloyed good

Show threadpost-Gundam cryptographyFeb 20, 2024
commentary by former staff member Tinystepsforward on Matt's behavior (again, i am relying on third-party commentary here, i'm not On Tumblr enough to keep track of who is actually on staff)
tender mercy

matt is supposed to be on fucking sabbatical rn. the last time he refused to log off and caused problems swinging his dick around was on the wordpress.org twitter hawking a fundraiser for his birthda…

Tumblr
Show threadpost-Gundam cryptographyFeb 20, 2024

Cohost's CEO of Posting jkap adds their perspective:

i can not imaging having 25000 times as much money as i currently do and still wanting to post. at that point is it entirely optional and he does not appear to be in it for love of the game. skill issue.

Show threadpost-Gundam cryptographyFeb 21, 2024

https://www.tumblr.com/photomatt is back at it as of a few minutes ago, making a great point about Fedi

I'm continuing to get harassment and death threats here, in a way that is overwhelming the account. If it's hard for me to deal with this, with the team behind me, if nothing else this has given me a lot of empathy for how pile-ons must be totally unmanageable for users with the interface of Tumblr, especially the lack of basic things like bulk actions that have been in WordPress for a decade-plus.

oh wait no he's still talking about Tumblr

sorry

it's confusing since Fedi has the exact same tooling problems

Matt on Tumblr

Co-founder WordPress; CEO Automattic; Currently running Tumblr

Tumblr
Show threadpost-Gundam cryptographyFeb 21, 2024

but really this is Tumblr's fault, not the CEO of Tumblr. so much for "the land and the king are one" i guess, we're back to "this is a web site i bought because it was cheap".

As far as I'm aware improving moderation tools both for staff and regular users wasn't on Tumblr's roadmap when I left, but I hope this raises awareness within the team.

he also wants you to know that he contributes to open source so he can't be transphobic

I have dedicated my life since the age of 19 to open source software, which I believe to be radically inclusive, and democratizing publishing, commerce, and messaging. My hope is this work contributes, even if in a small domain-specific way, to a more fair and just society.

okay cool i've been doing open source since i was 18 so i guess i'm good to do some transphobia myself?

Show threadsensualcoderFeb 20, 2024
@vyr Here's one of the original posts by the CEO that began this shitstorm: https://www.tumblr.com/photomatt/742806189400866816/you-gonna-do-anything-or-make-any-statement-about
Matt on Tumblr

You gonna do anything or make any statement about the rampant transmisogyny on this hellsite, especially in cases like predstrogen recently? Or yall gonna stay silent and keep letting/making us get p…

Tumblr
Show threadErin In Safe Mode (they/it)Feb 20, 2024

@sensualcoder @vyr

Know that when you rile people up, they can do dumb things with possibly permanent consequences.

Golly for someone who is against making threats he sure went and did just that ​

Show threadWade Presque-IsleFeb 21, 2024

@sensualcoder @vyr imagine being an adult who grew up on the Internet and not being able to tell the difference between a death threat and wishful, hyperbolic thinking.

Or did he honestly think she was going to find his personal automobile, glue hammers to it, and then add multiple explosive devices?

Show threadnetworking wizard catgirlFeb 20, 2024

@vyr i wonder what they'd do if they enable federation and predestrogen makes an account.

also, catgirldick was also banned for similar reasons (ie. just being trans pretty much).

source: moving off tumblr and bringing some others with me, or at least trying to lmao. started moving off closer to the start of the month but still

Show threadpost-Gundam cryptographyFeb 20, 2024
@pearl moderation v. federation is the key question for anyone federating with anything, isn't it… probably she'd get blocked the first time someone complained, and probably they handle all reported posts and posters that way, because blocked federated accounts can't complain to Tumblr staff since they're not actually on Tumblr
Show threadXerz 💗Feb 20, 2024
@vyr are the DMs real please tell me they’re real
Show threadpost-Gundam cryptographyFeb 20, 2024

@xerz idk i'm not an official Tumblr cultural liaison

i have an account but i only use it to read porn

Show threadXerz 💗Feb 20, 2024
@vyr valid 
Show threadpost-Gundam cryptographyFeb 20, 2024
@xerz side note: i used to use it to write porn too, but that site is truly a UX nightmare, especially on mobile. actively hostile to copying and pasting large amounts of styled text. the audience is there but dang it was exhausting dealing with the site's busted editor components
Show threadAeviarthFeb 20, 2024
@vyr I'm going to start a corporation and treat it very well just to show other CEOs who's boss.
Show threadSenil888 Feb 20, 2024
@vyr I have a few links (from my reblogs to keep it easier). It's a LOT more (edit: not complicated, fucking worse) than this. Predstrogen had been a target of a harassment campaign from transphobes a lot of last year. A number of photos marked explicit had, apparently, been cleared up *with staff review.* And now predstrogen is being fully nuked - like, photos are gone, posts are gone, everything is gone - because of "harassment," something she was never told about.

www.tumblr.com/senil888/742860648571174912
www.tumblr.com/senil888/742861294491811840
www.tumblr.com/senil888/742859397677694976
www.tumblr.com/senil888/742859374164344832

I have plenty more in my recent reblogs there.
Yee Local Sunglass Hut

Hey so if "I hope you get exploded with hammers" or whatever is enough to get not only get just one account permanently deleted but to get every new account you make permanently deleted, wiping an en…

Tumblr
Show threadpost-Gundam cryptographyFeb 20, 2024
@senil888 that explains how she got flagged. lovely.
Show threadSenil888 Feb 20, 2024
@vyr eeeyup. It was constant false reports, and something Tumblr users like myself have suspected now and then is that the automated system would just eventually start locking accounts down or banning them if they get enough reports over enough time, even if the reports are fake as shit.

Whether that's true or not IDK, but the way staff is handling this is a nightmare and should shake every queer person's trust in that platform. "Queerest place on the net" my ass.

Especially that black people are reminding everybody that the same happened to them during the Russian psyop era. A lot of black people were banned or nuked because they were "russian psyops" with no evidence.m suggesting it.
Show thread✨ déménagement era ✨Feb 21, 2024
@vyr to add more to it : he said tumblr moderation is not transphobic anymore, because they fired the transphobic moderator that did exist and was there for a long time
somehow that excuses him of everything
Show threadMirre Feb 21, 2024
@Sapphaos @vyr oh it gets even better! He casually mentions that said moderator were selling moderation (aka taking BRIBES). Like this cannot be legal.
Show thread✨ déménagement era ✨Feb 21, 2024

@foervraengd @vyr dont think saw, i think they're going to have another lawsuit on their hand

why he admitted to that though??? his lawyers are probably fuming

https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/25/22949293/tumblr-nycchr-settlement-adult-content-ban-algorithmic-bias-lgbtq

Tumblr is settling with NYC’s human rights agency over alleged porn ban bias

Tumblr and parent company Automattic have settled with the NYC Commission on Human Rights over its 2018 adult content ban, agreeing to moderation changes.

The Verge
Show threadMirre Feb 21, 2024
@Sapphaos @vyr my guess is a bad attempt at coming off as transparent. The phrase was smth like “… and said freelance moderator was selling moderation (criminally)”. English isnt my main language so i didnt understand fully what he meant there but other ppl have pointed out that is p much accepting bribes.
Show threadMark Rizzn HopkinsFeb 23, 2024
@vyr I haven't hung out with Matt in over a decade. He used to be pretty progressive and savvy. Wonder what brain worms infected him.