It is not the first time that a company or a developer has had problems with Apple’s strict policies to publish content in the App Store. Perhaps the most notorious case is that of Epic Games, a case so controversial that it even had to be decided in court. Tumblr is another of the affected companies, and to reduce the risk of your app being removed from the App Store, has blocked more than 400 search terms.
The company has explained it through a post on its official website. In fact, a former Tumblr developer already expressed his discontent a few days ago about it, and now it has been the company itself that has taken action on the matter. And it is that the search terms blocked on Tumblr refer to the possibility of encountering ‘sensitive content’.
A change to stay in the App Store
Tumblr has wanted to purge its platform of sexual and explicit content for a while, and after the measures taken in 2018, this other is added, of which the company itself understands that users will find it ‘frustrating’.
On the web, Tumblr comments that users will now find certain differences when searching for some terms in the app. They claim that in certain circumstances, users may now see the ‘This content has been hidden due to potentially suggestive or explicit content‘.
The medium 9to5mac has compiled a list with some of those terms that have led to this message appearing:
Addiction
Anorexy
Antisemitism
Bipolar
Bulimia
Depression
Domestic abuse
Eating disorder
Insomnia
Mental illness
Misogyny
Racism
Sexism
sexual harassment
Suicide prevention
Xenophobia
These are just a few of the 400+ blocked terms. Such a strategy can seriously affect certain users, since many of the terms mentioned in the list could be used by those people who really need help on some of those topics.
Changes also apply to accounts. And is that if we access a blog in which its content has been marked as ‘explicit’, iOS users will also receive the same message as with the terms shown above.
From Tumblr they know perfectly well that the chosen solution ‘is far from ideal’, and that the intention of this change is simply to remain available to everyone and on all platforms.