Why Is Tumblr Taking the Fall for Apple?

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I have now read about a dozen articles taking Tumblr to task for its decision to ban adult content. I don’t get this. Tumblr’s decision was very clearly forced on it by Apple, which removed Tumblr from the App Store until it cleaned up its act. This is the equivalent of the death penalty: Tumblr can’t survive without access to the Apple ecosystem, so they have to do what Apple tells them.

So why isn’t everyone yelling at Apple instead? They’re the ones who are responsible for this new policy. But … crickets.

POSTSCRIPT: If I were running Tumblr, I’d fork the app and create a new one just for Apple. If you want the old Tumblr, you can get it on Android or Windows or whatever. If you insist on using an iPhone, you get a bowdlerized version. Don’t like it? Complain to Tim Cook.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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