Despite Occasionally Censoring LGBTQ Content, Tumblr Made 'Safe Mode' a Default Setting

On Sunday, the online platform Tumblr announced that its "Safe Mode" setting will now be the default for all users. This further implementation of the setting is worrying adult content creators: "All this [Safe Mode update] does is make adult content even less visible INSIDE the walled garden that adult Tumblr has already become," a sex industry blogger told Motherboard. "Tumblr is dead media as far as I'm concerned, from an adult-industry perspective."

However, there are other communities this update may effect: since it debuted last summer, the setting has been widely criticized for restricting completely non-sexual and innocuous LGBTQ+ content.

"We've heard from a bunch of you that Safe Mode was filtering posts from the LGBTQ+ community even though they were completely innocuous and totally safe-for-work. Please know that was never our intention, and we appreciate you letting us know so quickly--and forcefully! We're deeply sorry," Tumblr said in response.

The setting was optional for users that are 18 or older, but now all users have to manually turn it off.