WebProNews

Tag: Porn

  • Default Porn-Blocking Is Your Hilarious White House Petition of the Day

    It’s been a while since I’ve looked at We The People, the U.S. Government’s online petition site that’s, well, whatever is worse than an exercise in futility. Think of something that could be described as that, and then think of something worse. Then add a shiny layer of platitudes. Ok, now you’re close. The site wasn’t up during the government shutdown, so I kind of forgot it existed.

    But I kid the White House, with love. There have been a couple of moments in the past where the White House has made an important response to a popular petition. Those moments are here and here. That’s it. If you want to take a look at all of the petitions that The White House are ignoring – someone made a whole site devoted to it. There are currently 25 unanswered petitions that have successfully hit the signature requirements, and the average waiting time on those responses is 308 days.

    Because of this, the We the People site is generally used by me (and many others) as a place to find humor. You know, what kind of wacky stuff are people demanding now? Over the past year or so, we’ve seen people ask Obama to recreate a Frozone scene from the Incredibles, make Google keep Google Reader alive, make R. Kelly’s Ignition (Remix) the national anthem, and various Star Wars–related demands. Oh, and some people wanted to secede. That was fun.

    Ok, so now someone has petitioned the White House to block all of our porn by default. You’ve gone too far, M.G. of Greenbrae, California.

    “Require Porn to be an “Opt In” feature with Internet Service Providers rather than a standard feature,” they say.

    In its current state, Internet porn seeks out users by email solicitations and massive amounts of free content throughout Internet browser searches. The average person, even children, can type in the word “cat” or “home” or “soup” and instantly be inundated with offensive and disturbing pornographic images. Parents and individuals have to go to great lengths to install Internet filters that often don’t weed out all porn. We are asking for greater protection and responsibility from Internet Service providers and our country. We are asking that people who are interested in porn should have to seek it and choose it. They should have to “Opt In” for it by making arrangements to receive it with their Internet Service Provider. Everyone else should be free from it and assumed “Opt Out”.

    Meanwhile, this petition concerning NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been sitting well across the threshold barrier, totally ignored, since the summer. Good thing we finally have an official response on what it means to be truly gluten-free…on a petition that never actually crossed the signature threshold.

    It’s clear that the UK-inspired opt-in porn system is doomed to fail. For one, it’s on the We the People site – so that’s reason enough. Also, it’s only on pace to get about 15,000 signatures or so – maybe. That’s not going to cut it, anti-porn crusaders.

    Still, part of me hopes it hits the 100,000 signature threshold. I’d love to see a response, and the day-after headlines. “Obama wants your kids to have easy access to gay porn.” Thank you, We the People, for continuing to amuse me at every turn.

    Image via WhiteHouse.gov

  • University of Iowa TA Accidentally Emails Porn

    This is a great lesson for any teaching assistant that sends emails from the same computer that their homemade porn stash is on–double check your attachments. Always. After a teaching assistant with the University of Iowa forgot to do just that, students in her class got quite an eyeful.

    The TA was supposed to send out a compressed file of homework solutions on Tuesday, but added the wrong attachment and sent out homemade porn instead. A copy of the TA’s email, which was obtained by the TotalFratMove.com reads, “Hi class, I attach the solutions for number 76 and 78 in this email. Best.” The email went out to more than 80 students.

    Seems innocent enough, right? Instead of getting solutions to the homework problems, however, the attachments includes a series of nude photos of the TA with a male. The attachments also had some images in .gif form (animated clips). The students that received the email believed the pictures were taken during a cybersex video chat the couple had on Google+ Hangout.

    Have you ever sent out an email you instantly regretted? Respond below.

    And this is why email providers that offer the ability to recall emails, such as Gmail, are so great. Of course, there is always the option to just not store porn on your computer–at least not one that you ever send anything work-related from.

    Lest anyone think that this was all a scheme by the University of Iowa to increase enrollment, an official with the university spoke out on the porn email. UI spokesman Tom Moore said, “We can confirm that a teaching assistant sent an email with inappropriate content to her students. This incident was inappropriate, and the university will look into it and take appropriate actions under our policies and procedures.”

    To make matters worse for the young teaching assistant, her students took the issue to Twitter, where University of Iowa students and many others had a field day making jokes and other crude comments about the accidental email.

    [Images via Twitter and TotalFratMove]

  • Larry Flynt on Shooter: “I Don’t Want to Kill Him”

    While some people would want nothing more than to see the person who made an attempt on their life die, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt feels quite differently.

    Flynt has spoken out about the pending death of the man who shot and paralyzed him from the waist down in 1978. Flynt wrote about the assassination attempt and his shooter’s upcoming lethal injection in a guest column, and it is quite clear that Flynt does not want the shooter, Joseph Paul Franklin, to die.

    While Flynt speaks out against the death penalty, he does say that he would like an hour by himself with Franklin. Read part of Larry Flynt’s column from The Hollywood Reporter:

    In all the years since the shooting, I have never come face-to-face with Franklin. I would love an hour in a room with him and a pair of wire-cutters and pliers, so I could inflict the same damage on him that he inflicted on me. But, I do not want to kill him, nor do I want to see him die.

    As far as the severity of punishment is concerned, to me, a life spent in a 3-by-6-foot cell is far harsher than the quick release of a lethal injection. And costs to the taxpayer? Execution has been proven to be far more expensive for the state than a conviction of life without parole, due to the long and complex judicial process required for capital cases.

    Joseph Paul Franklin, whose death sentence is scheduled to be carried out on November 20 at Potosi Correctional Center in Missouri, admitted to shooting Flynt after being arrested for other crimes. The attempt on Flynt’s life was hardly the only violent crime Franklin has confessed to committing.

    Franklin has been convicted of six murders, but confessed to eight, and the Mobile, Alabama man is suspected to be involved in up to 20 murders. Franklin went on a murder spree from 1976 to 1980 (the year he was arrested) in an effort to “cleanse the world” of people he considered inferior. Franklin was involved in a number of hate crimes, including shooting civil rights activist Vernon Jordan and fire-bombing multiple synagogues.

    After Franklin was arrested, he told investigators of plans he had to try to kill President Jimmy Carter and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, plus he admitted to trying to kill Flynt and others. The reason Franklin gave for trying to kill Flynt was because his magazine displayed images of interracial sex.

    After Larry Flynt’s column was published, he also posted his thoughts concerning Franklin’s upcoming death on Twitter.

    [Image via Twitter]

  • Revenge Porn Now the Focus of New York Lawmakers

    A handful of New York lawmakers want to make their state the third to update its law books to ban so-called “revenge porn.”

    Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 255 into law, making it illegal to ““electronically distribute nude images of another person with the intent to cause serious emotional distress” – specifically when the original photos were taken with an expectation of privacy (read, inside a committed relationship). Before California, New Jersey put similar laws on the books.

    Now it may be New York’s turn. Two separate pieces of legislation have been announced, both of which would punish posting revenge porn online with fines and jail time.

    “Revenge porn can ruin a woman’s life, family and career,” said Senator Phil Boyle, author of one of the bills. “As the social media phenomenon grows, more and more women are being violated and exploited by their ex-boyfriends and husbands. These private images go viral to the world and women have little or no legal recourse. I will introduce a bill to give law enforcement the tools to protect victims of revenge porn.”

    And he’s not the only one pushing this type of legislation.

    What most anti-revenge porn laws basically do are update current statutes to ban the distribution of consensually-captured photographs after the fact – or more specifically, after the breakup. Most states already have laws that govern the distribution of photographs taken without the subject’s consent, but so-called revenge porn poses a unique challenge. The sexually explicit photographs were once taken with the subject’s consent, but are being publicized without it.

    Assemblyman Edward Braunstein and Senator Joseph Griffo’s proposed legislation does just this.

    New York’s current distribution of unlawful surveillance law only governs photographs taken without the subject’s consent. This bill would govern photographs that are captured consensually, as part of an intimate relationship, with the expectation of privacy, and are later disclosed by an individual to the public without the consent of the individual photographed

    “This so-called phenomena of ‘cyber-revenge,’ is a tawdry form of exploitation. From what we know, the majority of its victims are women who don’t know that their images and likenesses has been bartered and sold over the internet. Currently, these victims have limited options when their pictures taken with their consent, were posted online. They would have to enlist a lawyer and threaten to sue the person responsible for sharing the photo or the website hosting them, for invasion of privacy. New Jersey and California have laws addressing this problem, we’re advocating that New York should be the third,” said Griffo.

    Boyle’s legislation proposes a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail on the first offense. Assemblyman Braunstein and Senator Griffo’s bill ups the fine to a possible $30,000.

  • Punk Band Films Porn on Westboro Baptist Church Lawn

    (UPDATE: VICE just recently did an interview with the leader singer.)

    You might be familiar with the friendly people over at the Westboro Baptist Church.

    Well, California punk band Get Shot! filmed a porn film of their bass player masturbating on the front lawn of the Westboro Baptist Church. Get Shot! dubs itself as “the sleaziest punk band in the world”, and is the “first band ever to start a porn site.”

    “The Phelps family and Westboro Baptist Church are ridiculous and do nothing except spread hate and cause controversy,” Laura Lush said in a press release. “As a bisexual woman and the bass player of a ridiculous punk band, I wanted to spread my legs and cause controversy.”

    While taking a detour driving to a concert in Denver, Get Shot! stopped by the Topeka, Kansas headquarters of the Westboro Baptist Church, whipped out their camera, and started filming the Westboro Baptist Finger Bang!!! porno video.

    In the video, Lush undresses herself on a clean cut green grassy lawn, sits down on her robe, and proceeds with the two finger taco tango (or in other words, masturbate.)

    You can find the entire video on the band’s free porn site, which according to Get Shot!, has garnered the interest of a Westboro Baptist Church member. It would seem that somebody over at the Westboro Baptist Church was a little bit curious and took their sweet time on the site.

    The band has made a promise to head back to the lawn in a few months with an even bigger, badder porno set.

    “There was a lot of traffic and we saw a few cops at a coffee shop a few blocks away. We barley had enough gas money and cocaine to make it to Denver for our next concert. Since we can’t afford bail, we had to cut it a little short before the cops got called. If someone will bail us out, we will bring a group of girls and a whole camera crew when we come back in a few months” said J.P. Hunter on the Get Shot! Facebook Page fanpage.

    Apparently Fred Phelps, the church’s leader, has a Twitter account?

    (Pictures via WikiCommons, Twitter)

  • ‘Revenge Porn’ Is Now Officially Banned in California

    With a stroke of Governor Jerry Brown’s pen, California has become the latest state to criminalize so-called “revenge porn.”

    We’ve been tracking the bill, SB 255, as it moved through the state’s legislature – passing committee back in June and finally passing the assembly unanimously last month. The law makes it illegal to “electronically distribute nude images of another person with the intent to cause serious emotional distress.”

    Here’s the actual text of the new law:

    …[A]ny person who photographs or records by any means the image of another, identifiable person without with his or her consent who is in a state of full or partial undress in any area in which the person being photographed or recorded has a reasonable expectation of privacy, and subsequently distributes the image taken, where the distribution of the image would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress with the intent to cause serious emotional distress, and the other person suffers serious emotional distress would constitute disorderly conduct subject to that same punishment.

    When the law refers to the “same punishment,” it means the penalty for those who use a concealed camera to take compromising photos of others without their consent. In fact, this new anti-revenge porn provision was build into section 653.2 of the code, which houses California’s “Peeping Tom” laws.

    “I want to thank Governor Brown for recognizing that this bill was needed. Until now, there was no tool for law enforcement to protect victims,” says Cannella. “Too many have had their lives upended because of an action of another that they trusted.”

    The bill contained an “urgency clause,” so it went into effect the moment Gov. Brown signed it. Now, posting revenge porn images of an ex online could net an offender six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine on their first offense.

    California follows in New Jersey’s footsteps, who also has anti-revenge porn laws on the books.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Alleged Fourth Porn Star Tests Positive for HIV

    According to The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), another U.S. porn star was tested positive for contracting HIV, making it the fourth such case in the last 30 days.

    AHF told the Huffington Post on Tuesday that the unnamed male performer told the foundation that he tested positive for the incurable virus. In order to protect the actor’s privacy, AHF kept tight lipped when specifying how the actor contracted the disease.

    Michael Weinstein, founder of AHF, told Reuters that he was “sad for the person involved.”

    “I’m really sad for our community, that we’re treating these people as utterly disposable.”

    However, the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a porn industry trade group that runs an STD testing service and database, believes Weinstein is lying.

    “This information came from AHF, who is currently trying to push regulation on the industry and has, on many occasions, reported false information to the media to advance their political agenda,” FSC’s CEO Diane Duke said.

    “Again, we have no evidence of a fourth performer testing positive for HIV.”

    It is not entirely known who the performer is that has been infected; The Daily Caller believes it may be Anthony Weiner’s sexting partner Sydney Leathers. Until the tests come back conclusive for Leathers, The New York Post reports that there will be a freeze on the making of porn films in the U.S.

    Leathers shared a sex partner with Cameron Bay, another porn actress who was recently tested positive for HIV. Bay announced on September 3rd that she contracted HIV, making her the first case in the string of infections:

    Rod Daily, a second adult industry actor, announced the same day that he contracted HIV:


    A third unknown adult performer, who didn’t work with Bay or Daily, was announced last Friday by the FSC to have also contracted HIV. The FSC announced on The Performer Availability Screening Services (PASS) website, that all the partners involved with the third performer had been tested twice.

    “While we don’t have evidence to suggest an on-set transmission as opposed to a transmission from non-industry (off-camera) related activity, we are taking every measure to determine the source and to protect the performer pool,” said the FSC.

    There doesn’t seem to be many enforced health regulations surrounding the participatory jobs of porn stars. Rewind back to November 1st, 2012, The Huffington Post published an article that found that 47 out of the 168 adult industry actors in L.A. had gonorrhea or chlamydia (or both.) Back then, The Safer Sex in The Adult Industry Act, or Measure B, was faced with opposition from porno bigwigs. Steve Hirsch, the founder of Vivid Entertainment said that Measure B was a “solution looking for a problem.” Measure B (which passed) orders the mandatory use of condoms by all actors performing sex on the set. Yet, according to Weinstein, the Los Angeles County public health officials have done very little to enforce the condom requirement.

    Weinstein told the Huffington Post that, “It’s a slow motion car wreck. Nobody wants to take responsibility. If you don’t wear a seat-belt and you don’t wear a condom, eventually you’re likely to get hurt.”

     

    (Image source: WikiMedia Commons)

  • Porn Hub Releases State-by-State Porn Preferences

    Most people have heard of the age-old adage (and popular children’s book), “everybody poops.” Most of those same people are pretty willing to admit that it’s true, and that they partake in the activity, since it’s a natural thing. Many of those same people, however, won’t admit to a similarly natural and common thing; in fact, most people won’t even talk about it. What I’m alluding to, dear readers, is masturbation (also known as whatever strange euphemism you might choose to use). Almost everybody masturbates; about 95% of men and 89% of women admit to the deed, and due to societal shame and stigma, it wouldn’t be all too crazy to assume the rates are even higher. Masturbation is a natural thing that happens a lot… and that is aided by a lot of porn.

    We know that last part is true due to the graph recently released by Pornhub, a popular pornography website that hosts a large selection of videos featuring various scenarios, kinks, and other lusty delights. The compiled data (which, for your perusing pleasure, can be found here) includes an interactive map, where you can select individual states to see what their top three search terms are and how long their average visits to the website are.

    Looking through the information is a riveting time, and many bloggers and websites have picked up on some of the more interesting times and search terms. Some of the most notable results come from Wyoming’s lust for “smoking,” California’s fixation on “Asian,” “teen,” and “massage,” and the writer’s home state, Kentucky, which proudly boasted “hentai” as its top search term. (In case you are new to the internet, here is an explanation of hentai. Enjoy.)

    All in all, Pornhub’s data is an interesting way to make pornography, masturbation, and sex just a little less taboo, even if only by making it fun to gawk at. After all, what could possibly be more fun than knowing what most of your friends, family, and acquaintances like to look at during their private time?

    Image courtesy of Pornhub’s online data.

  • Revenge Porn Bill Moves Along in California

    The state of California is looking to crack down on so-called “revenge porn” with a new law that would make posting sexual images without someone’s consent a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and $2000 fine.

    We first reported on SB 255 back in June, when it first passed the California Senate’s Public Safety Committee. Today, that bill was debated in assembly and passed unanimously.

    The bill would amend section 653.2 and make it an actual crime to electronically distribute nude images of another person “with the intent to cause serious emotional distress.”

    Here’s the text of the bill:

    This bill would provide that any person who photographs or records by any means the image of another, identifiable person without with his or her consent who is in a state of full or partial undress in any area in which the person being photographed or recorded has a reasonable expectation of privacy, and subsequently distributes the image taken, where the distribution of the image would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress with the intent to cause serious emotional distress, and the other person suffers serious emotional distress would constitute disorderly conduct subject to that same punishment.

    The “same punishment” refers to the penalty for those who use a concealed camera to take compromising photos of others without their consent – bathroom peeping toms for example.

    “A first violation of that offense is punishable by imprisonment in the a county jail not exceeding 6 months, or by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment, and a 2nd or subsequent violation of that offense, or any violation of that offense in which the victim was, at the time of the offense, a minor, is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment.”

    “’People who post or text pictures that are meant to be private as a way to seek revenge are reprehensible,” said the bill’s sponsor Senator Anthony Cannella. ’”The law does not keep up with the technology…So this hopefully raises the bar enough where people think twice about engaging in this behavior because it’s ruined people’s lives.’”

    Victims of revenge porn have been able to take their cases to the civil courts, but lawmakers feel like a criminal law on the books may help deter jilter lovers from posting pictures of their exes online.

    Of course, it’s not just the uploaders who can get caught up in a legal mess – revenge porn sites and even their hosters can be the target of lawsuits. Earlier this year, a group called “End Revenge Porn” filed a class action suit against revenge porn site Texxxam.com and its host GoDaddy.

    They claimed that “the defendants are all acting in a deliberately reprehensible manner to participate in activity that they know to be malicious, hurtful, and harmful,”

    End Revenge Porn calls the practice of posting sexual content online without a person’s consent “a form of cyber-rape.”

    Image via Thinkstock

  • USA! USA! We’re Number One…in Porn! (We Did It, You Guys)

    Hello fellow Americans. Recently losing our obesity crown to Mexico has probably got you feeling a bit down, and I understand that. Chanting “We’re Number two, we’re number two” doesn’t really have the same ring to it.

    We’re still number one in terms our incarceration levels, and I’m sure we’re still on top in number of current reality shows about people with 20+ children. But if you don’t feel like celebrating either of those victories, here’s something to boast about at your next multicultural barbecue…

    The United States of Awesome hosts the most porn in the world – and it’s not even close.

    New research from “family-friendly web product specialists MetaCert” shows that the U.S. hosts about 428 web pages full of porn. That’s around 60% of the world’s porn.

    Coming in second is The Netherlands with 187 million pages of porn – 26%. The U.K. hosts 7% or the internet’s porn pages – but that number will probably take a hit over the next couple of years.

    Here’s the rest of the top 10, in order: Germany, France, Australia (T), Canada (T), Japan, Virgin Islands (T), and the Czech Republic (T).

    Maybe it’s the cultural differences, maybe it’s the cost of web hosting, or maybe it’s sweet, sweet porny freedom. Whatever the case, take pride, America. You did it.

  • Porn Hankering Foils Church Computer Thief

    In just face it, most people use their computers mainly to watch porn news, an Owasso, Oklahoma man has been arrested after reportedly stealing a computer from the Owasso First Assembly of God church. That, in and of itself, isn’t very funny. But oh man, the rest of the story is.

    As KRMG reports, an employee at the church contacted police to report the missing computer. After putting some of the facts together himself, the employee told police that it must have been someone familiar with the church that perpetrated the theft. There were no signs of a break-in and the thief didn’t make off with anything else.

    The plot thickens.

    Police didn’t really have any credible leads until a couple of weeks later when they learned that the tipster had been contacted by a company called Covenant Eyes, whom the church had paid to monitor and filter the content accessed via their church computers.

    Covenant Eyes told the concerned employee that someone had been trying to look at porn on the stolen computer.

    Not only that, but that a man had actually called the company and requested that they unblock his access. Please, gimme my porn. Pretty please.

    Enter Troy Ridling, a parishioner, who police were able to track down based on his call to Covenant Eyes. Once he was apprehended, it took him a little while to confess to the theft – but he eventually admitted the whole thing.

    Covenant Eyes, if you were wondering, is a Owosso, Michigan-based company that provides software for internet filtering and online accountability. They’ve recently published an e-book called “Your Brain on Porn: 5 proven ways porn warps your mind and 3 biblical ways to renew it.” I wonder if they’ll gift Mr. Ridling with a complementary copy.

    Sure, God is always watching. But so are the church-sanctioned porn police.

    [h/t Gizmodo]

  • Malware Fools Man into Turning Himself in for Child Porn

    Malware Fools Man into Turning Himself in for Child Porn

    A Virginia man has been arrested and held without bond after he turned himself in to police for viewing child porn.

    The story is a bit more complicated than it sounds, mainly due to the fact that it was a clever bit of malware that prompted Jay Matthew Riley to go to the police in the first place.

    According to police, Riley came into the station to ask if he had any warrants out for him on child pornography charges. Apparently, Riley received a message that claimed to be from the FBI, stating that he had been caught with child porn and that his only two options were to pay a fine or to face criminal prosecution.

    Of course, the message was not from the FBI. It was ransomware, a specific type of malware that locks up a user’s computer and demands a “ransom” – usually monetary compensation paid to the virus’ creators.

    Riley voluntarily handed over his computer to police, who found “several inappropriate messages and photos of underage girls.” This discovery led to a search warrant, where police confiscated more devices.

    As a result, Riley has been charged with 3 counts of possession of child pornography, 1 count of using a communication device to solicit certain offenses involving children, and 1 count of indecent liberties with a minor.

    As The Verge points out, it’s possible that the same ransomware that displayed the fake FBI warning could have also planted illicit images on Riley’s computer. The police specifically state that Riley was “viewing child pornography” on his computer when the fake message popped up – but once again, some ransomware has been known to also display these types of images on victims’ screens in order to increase the odds of them paying up.

    [Prince William Daily-Monitor, Image via TechRepublic]

  • Google Glass Get Its “First-Ever” Porn Flick

    Google Glass porn is officially a thing now, thanks to James Deen. The actor/director is the first official porn company to produce a movie with Google Glass as the focus. The setup features the traditional office/sexy secretary setting, with Andy San Dimas playing the frisky receptionist. Not only are portions of the action shot with Google Glass–first-person POV for the win–the two performers are also being filmed by a separate film crew. So yeah, it’s got something of a Google Glass Does Inception feel to it.

    The on-screen duo use their respective Glass headsets to do things like look up information about each other, use an X-Ray vision feature, and sync up their sexual rhythm on their Glass display. Naturally, the parody aspect of porn is alive in well in James Deen’s creation.

    As you might expect, there is a trailer for the movie. It is, surprisingly, safe enough to be posted on YouTube. That, however, does not mean your workplace will appreciate it if you decide to watch it during business hours:


    According to the performers, while they seem to be having a good time, working with Google Glass wasn’t necessarily easy:

    In addition to the plot, the Glass also began to heat up, as it tends to do when recording for an extended period of time. The stars grew irritated with their cyborg extension, which kept getting knocked around and caught in San Dimas’s hair.

    For those of you who need more action than a YouTube trailer can give, it looks like you’ll have to wait. While the author who was invited to the shoot, Motherboard’s Arikia Millikan, indicates a full-on porn was being shot while she was there, the final product doesn’t seem to be available at the moment.

  • Tumblr Makes a Big Porn Policy Reversal

    Here’s the thing about porn: no matter how you try to push it down, hide it, and otherwise prevent internet users from accessing it – porn will find a way.

    Ask Tumblr CEO David Karp, who over the weekend issued a ‘clarification’ that really amounted to a reversal in policy concerning “NSFW & Adult’ blog visibility on the site. This move came in response to user backlash over a recent shift in Tumblr’s adult content policies that didn’t quite remove porn from the network, but made it a hell of a lot hard to find.

    “All, we’ve heard from a bunch of you who are concerned about Tumblr censoring NSFW/adult content. While there seems to be a lot of misinformation flying around, most of the confusion seems to stem from our complicated flagging/filtering features. Let me clear up (and fix) a few things,” said Karp in a blog post.

    Last week, Tumblr introduced a new Adult blogs guidelines page that explained the blog network’s new rules concerning blogs tagged as both “NSFW” (mildly racy) and “Adult” (super racy). Per the new rules, both NSFW and Adult blogs could no longer appear in search pages for logged-out users and Adult blogs were stricken from both third party search engines (like Google) and Tumblr own internal search.

    Cue the outrage.

    Karp addresses the issue with the three-pronged approach. First, he says that they have fixed a “bug” that was preventing adult blogs from appearing in search results even when Safe Mode had been disabled.

    Second, Karp explains that there’s really nothing to be done about some tag searches being blocked in their mobile apps. The prevalence of porn related to many tag searches is risky to Tumblr’s standing in some app universes. Basically, Karp says that they could get banned for promoting such content. Good news, however: you can still access all of it from Tumblr’s mobile site.

    Finally, and most importantly, Karp says that adult blogs will now be placed back into Google:

    “Earlier this year, in an effort to discourage some not-so-nice people from using Tumblr as free hosting for spammy commercial porn sites, we started delisting this tiny subset of blogs from search engines like Google. This was never intended to be an opt-in flag, but for some reason could be enabled after checking off NSFW → Adult in your blog settings. This was confusing and unnecessary, so we’ve dropped the extra option. If your blog contains anything too sexy for the average workplace, simply check “Flag this blog as NSFW” so people in Safe Mode can avoid it. Your blog will still be promoted in third-party search engines,” he says.

    The previous move to restrict adult blogs from third party searches could have affected as many as 12.5 million blogs -making them virtually untrackable via search. This reversal should fix that. Blog owners, you can now exhale.

    “Aside from these fixes, there haven’t been any recent changes to Tumblr’s treatment of NSFW content, and our view on the topic hasn’t changed. Empowering your creative expression is the most important thing in the world to us. Making sure people aren’t surprised by content they find offensive is also incredibly important and we are always working to put more control in your hands,” says Karp.

    Porn and Tumblr go hand in hand – we know there’s a lot of it on the site. After Yahoo acquired Tumblr back in May, CEO Marissa Mayer said that Yahoo would not be restricting content. Later, Karp echoed her sentiment.

    But they did try to make it very hard to find. Now, NSFW blog owners can rest knowing their content won’t be completely buried.

  • Tumblr Isn’t Removing Porn, Just Making It a Hell of a Lot Harder to Find

    Imagine someone baked you a cookie and promised you that you could have it whenever you wanted. “You promise not to take it away?” you ask them. “Yes,” they say. “I promise. Even though your dad doesn’t really want you to have cookies, I promise that I’ll leave the cookie in your house for you.”

    Then, let’s imagine that they put it in a box and hid it from you. Sure, you can find it – but it’s really hard to find and almost not worth the effort. At that point, would you say that they have basically taken your cookie away from you?

    With that story in mind, know that Tumblr has just released a new set of guidelines for NSFW and Adult blogs that basically puts your porn in a box and hides it from you.

    “Tumblr welcomes and encourages all forms of expression. However, we have to be sensitive to the millions of readers and bloggers from different locations, cultures, and backgrounds with different points of view concerning mature or adult-oriented content. There are a lot of people in our community who would rather not see this stuff and could even get in trouble if they did,” says Tumblr on their new NSFW and Adult blogs guideline page.

    With that, Tumblr is asking blog owners to help protect those who do not wish to see adult content by tagging their blogs as either NSFW or Adult, if applicable. NSFW means that your blog has some occasional nudity – maybe an artful nude photograph or a breastfeeding photo. Adult means that your blog contains a substantial amount of nudity and adult-oriented content – which means full on porn, I guess.

    Of course, if blog owners don’t do this on their own, they could be flagged an given either a NSFW or Adult tag automatically.

    Now, if your blog is tagged as NSFW, it will no longer appear in tag pages and searches for logged-out users. Your content will also not appear in the streams of users who don’t follow you.

    The big hit here is taken by Adult blogs, however. Adult blogs no longer appear in search engines like Google or in Tumblr search results.

    Tumblr isn’t removing adult content – they’re just making it really hard to find.

    When Yahoo announced its Tumblr acquisition back in May, Tumblr users threw a fit. Part of their concern stemmed from the fact that they believed Yahoo’s influence would lead to Tumblr censoring all of the adult content on the site. And as we know, there’s a hell of a lot of it.

    Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer assuaged some fears when she said that Yahoo is not interested in restricting content on Tumblr. And just this week, Tumblr CEO David Karp echoed that sentiment, saying,

    “Look, we’ve taken a pretty hard line on freedom of speech, supporting our users’ creation – whatever that looks like. It’s just not something that we want to police.”

    Despite that claim, it appears that the porn crackdown is here. In with the ads, and out with the porn.

    Of course, this is a bigger blow to blog creators that frequently feature adult content. The average Tumblr user will be fine – they can find porn and other adult content anywhere. But this decrease in visibility will most likely hurt tons of Tumblr blog owners.

    Tumblr is hiding your cookies. The question is, will users look for another baker?

  • Twitter’s Mobile Apps Now Warn You of ‘Sensitive Media’ inside Tweets

    Twitter, unlike Facebook, doesn’t censor much of its “sensitive” content. It’s not hard to find gratuitous nudity, violent images, and even outright pornographic content on the network. “We do not mediate content, whether that content is an image or text,” says Twitter. And the only exception to that rule comes when said content is illegal.

    But that doesn’t mean that Twitter doesn’t want to protect some users from this “sensitive” content.

    To that end, Twitter has begun to display a warning message on tweets containing possibly sensitive media – this includes nudity, violence, medical procedures, and anything else that could be deemed “adult-oriented.” The message is displayed where the image should be when users open up a tweet in the company’s mobile apps, and it warns that “the following media may contain sensitive material.”

    Users then have to click through to see the media.

    There are basically two ways that your media could be marked as sensitive. First, you can do it yourself. In your settings, you can mark your own media as possibly containing sensitive content. If you do this, that new message will be shown to users whenever you tweet out something containing media. The other way that your content could be marked as sensitive is if other Twitter users flag it as such.

    All Things D confirmed with Twitter than the new sensitive materials stopgap came to both Twitter for iOS and Android in updates earlier this month.

    On the other side of things, you can tool your settings to allow sensitive content to show up without this warning message. But the default is to show the warning.

  • Tumblr CEO David Karp Talks Porn, Profitability with Stephen Colbert

    Tumblr CEO David Karp stopped by the Colbert Report last night, where he talked Tumblr’s future profitability, porn on the site, and why he dropped out of high school at the age of 15.

    Early on in the interview, Colbert implies that Karp is “successful” with his Tumblr venture, to which Karp replies:

    “Not yet. I’ve got lots to prove. We gotta get this thing to profitability first – that’s a pretty big milestone.”

    Since the Yahoo acquisition, Tumblr has already implemented more ads. The previously staunchly anti-ad Karp recently embraced the idea of ads on the network, saying that he hoped advertisers would win Lions awards for their future work on Tumblr.

    Addressing the porn issue, which was a big point of contention when Yahoo first announced their Tumblr acquisition (users though that the deal meant censorship was on the way), Karp shied away from the “porn central” label. But he did indicate that they weren’t interested in limiting that type of content.

    “Look, we’ve taken a pretty hard line on freedom of speech, supporting our users’ creation – whatever that looks like,” said Karp. “It’s just not something that we want to police.”

    Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has echoed those sentiments, recently saying that they won’t work to restrict porn, as it’s “the nature of user-generated content.”

    Check out the full interview below:

  • Google Glass Gets Its Porn App Back

    Google Glass Gets Its Porn App Back

    Earlier this month, Google updated its developer polices for Google Glass to ban porn apps. On that very same day, Mikandi launched a porn app for Glass called Tits and Glass. Mikandi soon pulled the app, but now it’s back minus any porn.

    In a blog post today (NSFW), Mikandi announced the return of Tits and Glass. To get around Google’s new policies, Mikandi will be using a combination of Glass and its own Web site to share POV porn with the world:

    Therefore, the biggest change to the Tits & Glass adult app is that Glass users are no longer allowed to share intimate racy experiences with other Glass users. We’ve added a feature to filter out pornographic material from appearing on the Glass app. But fret not. Although you can’t share your nude photos on the device itself, you can still share your sexy POV content on titsandglass.com. And because we don’t want you to get totally bored with your now-kinda-boring device, we partnered with top photographers around the globe to preload the app with irresistibly hot, *non-pornographic* photos of some of the world’s most beautiful models. You can access, vote, and comment on these photos through Glass. Yay!

    It’s a rather diplomatic solution if you ask me. Sure, you can’t browse through POV porn on Glass anymore, but Glass-enabled POV porn is still going to be a thing. Google can’t stop people from filming it and people are going to watch it. Mikandi is just getting a head start on the Glass porn market before Glass becomes generally available later this year/early next year.

  • Google Warns ‘Adult’ Bloggers with Porn Ads of Imminent Takedown [UPDATED]

    It looks like Google is getting ready to crack down on adult content on Blogger – or at least those who profit from promoting adult content on Blogger.

    Blogger users who have identified their blogs as containing “adult” content just received an email warning them that Google is about to start removing blogs that “are adult in nature and are displaying advertisements to adult websites.” Google says that this action will come behind an update to their content policy on June 30th.

    But really, Blogger’s content policy has always banned most ads and links to adult websites.

    “Do not use Blogger as a way to make money on adult content. For example, don’t create blogs where a significant percentage of the content is ads or links to commercial porn sites,” says the Blogger policy.

    I guess Google is simply going to make this clause a bit more strict, taking out that “significant percentage” part and replacing it with an outright ban on ads and links to outside porn.

    As far as for “adult” content in general, it has always been ok, just as long as blog admins properly label their content – and don’t promote any sort of child pornography, incest, or bestiality.

    But this email that Google sent to Blogger admins is a bit ambiguous. Check it out:

    Is Google saying that they are planning to remove all blogs that both contain adult content and ads to adult content? Or, are they saying that they plan on removing blogs that contain adult content as well as remove blogs that contain ads to adult content? These two things are quite different.

    Plus, let’s be real – the term “adult.” without any other descriptions, is vague – at best. Exactly what kind of crackdown is Google planning here?

    I’ve reached out to Google for clarification and will update this article accordingly.

    UPDATE: According to a Google spokesperson, it looks like they’re just going to be removing blogs that monetize from adult ads:

    “We will be updating our Content Policy to strictly prohibit the monetization of adult content on Blogger. We will remove blogs that are displaying advertisements to adult websites.”

    [Violet Blue via The Next Web]

  • Revenge Porn Targeted by California Lawmakers

    A new California bill looks to curtail the spread of so-called “revenge porn” by finally codifying the crime into law and setting specific penalties for the unauthorized distribution of sexual materials.

    SB 255 has passed the California Senate’s Public Safety Committee, which means it will be up for a vote within the next couple of weeks.

    Here’s the text from the bill:

    This bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person who, with the intent to cause substantial emotional distress or humiliation to another person, by means of an electronic communication device, and without consent of the other person, electronically distributes, publishes, emails, hyperlinks, or makes available for downloading nude images of the other person along with personal identifying information of the other person.

    Those found guilty of violating the law would be subject to up to one year in jail and/or a fine of $1,000. The bill broadly describes “electronic communication device” as cellphones, computers, any internet-connected device, and actual web pages as well.

    “There has been a recent increase in what is commonly called ‘revenge porn,’ and this bill seeks to discourage the act,” says the bill’s sponsor Anthony Cannella.

    “People who post or text pictures that are meant to be private as a way to seek revenge are reprehensible. Right now, there is no tool for law enforcement to protect the victims. Too many have had their lives upended because of an action of another that they trusted. This is a common sense bill that clamps down on those who exploit intimacy and trust for revenge or personal gain.”

    Finding a place on the moral outskirts of pornography, so-called revenge porn sites host images and videos of so-called “exes.” The point of such sites is that men are exacting revenge on ex-girlfriends by posting their private sexual communications online for the world to see.

    We’ve seen revenge porn sites targeted in the past, sued for invasion of privacy, public disclosure of private facts, and such. Most of the time, these sites are able to stand behind the famous section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects websites from being liable for user-submitted content. This new bill would give officials more leeway to target individual offenders.

    By the language of this bill, however, it wouldn’t just be revenge porn sites that would fall under its purview. Anyone that sends their buddies a text of their ex-girlfriend naked, or uploads such images to an internet forum like reddit could be targeted as violators.

    “It is unfortunate that we have to create legislation to protect individuals from the misuse of technology,” said Christine Ward, executive director of Crime Victims Action Alliance. “I applaud Senator Cannella for his efforts to prevent future victimization in California.”

  • Facebook Won’t Pull Shockingly Graphic Indian Prostitution Page [UPDATED]

    UPDATE: It looks like Facebook has removed the page, as I thought they would. But it was still active for a long time, and Facebook did delay in yanking it even after various content reports. Still shows how messed-up Facebook’s content-removal system can be.

    ORIGINAL ARTICLE: This post is NSFW

    Facebook – you’re sending some seriously mixed messages here.

    After yanking such highly-offensive content as artwork of Bea Arthur’s breasts, a New Yorker cartoon featuring the most rudimentary depiction of breasts that could ever exist, elbows that appear to resemble breasts, and various photos of women engaged in breastfeeding, Facebook has decided that a page for one of India’s most notorious red-light districts is a-ok.

    The page, Sonagachi (very NSFW), features graphic photos of breasts, vaginas, penises, oral sex, and even a series of photos apparently depicting a girl losing her virginity.

    It makes no point to hide what it is, listing this in the “about” section:

    Sonagachi is the largest red-light district in Kolkata, India and one of the largest in Asia. It is an area with several hundred multi-story brothels and estimated 11,000 sex workers

    The page hasn’t posted in months, but it is still filled with postings from others – some soliciting prostitutes. Plus, all of those photos…

    Blogger Liz Boltz Ranfield first spotted the page and called on Facebook to do something about it. She, along with a writer from Jezebel (and others), all reported the content to Facebook for removal.

    To their shock, Facebook replied with a “thanks but we can’t find any reason to remove it” email:

    Hi,

    Thanks for your recent report of a potential violation on Facebook. After reviewing your report, we were not able to confirm that the specific page you reported violates Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

    Learn more about what we do and don’t allow by reviewing the Facebook Community Standards: https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards.

    Thanks,
    Viki

    Interesting. Considering that the page features graphic nudity, sexual acts, and possibly sexual depictions of minors, this seems like an odd choice.

    Facebook’s terms of service clearly state that…

    “You will not post content that: is hate speech, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence,” and that “You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.”

    Seems like there’s plenty here to prompt the shuttering of the page.

    Just so we can understand this – this is ok:

    As is this:

    But this deserved to be yanked:

    (It was later reinstated with Facebook’s apology – but still, the content moderators felt they had reason to pull this at some point)

    In the past, many of these content-removal controversies could be attributed to two simple facts about Facebook: First, their content moderation is mostly outsourced, and second, there are billions of photos going up on Facebook every week. That means that it’s almost impossible to police all the content without some screw-ups.

    But this is different. This is Facebook’s content moderation being notified (multiple times) about content that is the epitome of what Facebook should be banning (per their terms of service), and the company is choosing to leave it up. It’s especially odd considering Facebook’s recent move to get tougher on harmful content after being pressured by various women’s groups

    I fully expect Facebook to eventually see the error in this judgement and yank the page. It’s inevitable with this much backlash. But, once again, we have an example of Facebook’s bad content moderation system at work. Something’s gotta change.