Beginning May 15, the photo-hosting site Imgur will remove “nudity, pornography, and sexually explicit content,” as well as “old, unused, and inactive content not associated with a user account,” according to an update to Imgur’s terms of service.(opens in a new tab) released this week. The company plans to use automated detection software as well as human moderators to detect explicit images.
Imgur Community Rules(opens in a new tab), which apply to public posts and anything related to them, such as tags, comments, and the like, have already banned nudity and explicit content. However, Imgur’s previous Terms of Service applied to all content on Imgur, not just community interactions. Now the company hopes that this change will bring Community rules “more equivalence”.
“It was previously allowed to post explicit/pornographic content on Imgur, but not when submitted as a comment or as a gallery submission. This caused frustration for users who received content violations for the content they uploaded elsewhere on the site. posted,” the TOS said. update reads. Imgur goes on to confuse explicit and illegal content, saying, “Explicit and illegal content have historically posed a risk to Imgur’s community and business.” By removing this content, Imgur hopes to “protect the future of the Imgur community.”
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In 2019 Imgur cited the same reason, risk, why it no longer allowed hosting for NSFW Reddit communities(opens in a new tab).
The TOS update also states that artistic nudity is allowed (as was previously allowed under the community rules) – but some content that was previously allowed under “artistic exceptions” may no longer apply as Imgur uses the automated detection calibrates.
We will not be issuing warnings, account suspensions or bans related to these automated flags – but this may affect what is allowed to be submitted or uploaded.
Last month, another photo storage site Shutterfly announced it would be deleting old accounts(opens in a new tab) and photos too, if they had been inactive for 18 months or more. Removing explicit content caught on comparisons to Tumblr(opens in a new tab): In 2018, social media site Tumblr banned adult content and traffic dropped by 30 percent. Whether the same will happen with Imgur remains to be seen.