Imgur Bans Sexual Content
Imgur joins the ranks of platforms revising their sexual content policies. Oh, and ‘inactive’ content.
Reddit’s old pal
Image host and social networking site Imgur stated in April that it would update its content policy to remove ‘inactive’ content not tied to a user account and all sexual content. These changes went into effect on May 15, 2023.
Imgur began as an image host that challenged the shortcomings of then-popular sites like Photobucket. Its users are closely tied to Reddit, who almost exclusively used Imgur for image and gif hosting until Reddit introduced native image hosting.
Over time, Imgur’s business model has evolved from an image host to an visual social network. During the 2010s, social media features were rolled out, including public galleries, front pages, interest topics, infinite scroll, and user awards.
The end of an era
Imgur’s announcement effectively signals the end of its use for sexual content on Reddit. The hundreds of thousands of users who do not use Reddit’s image hosting or Redgifs for sexual content will be left with one less option.
Although Imgur has stated that no accounts will be penalized for storing ‘nudity, pornography, & sexually explicit content’, it will use AI tools and human moderation to remove any said content. There is an exemption for ‘artistic nudity’, but it is unclear how AI content moderation will differentiate between artistic nudity and pornographic nudity.
This content policy change also arrivesd with a plan to remove ‘inactive’ content not tied to user accounts. Inactivity is vaguely defined as a combination of views and ‘other criteria’ that will determine whether content is removed.
This move pushes users to attach all content to an account – a far cry from Imgur’s origins as a host that was free of account-based restrictions.
Towards a PG-13 social media platform
Imgur launched in 2009 as ‘an image hosting service that doesn’t suck’. It competed by being simpler and more convenient than alternatives. It didn’t require registration, didn’t restrict images due to high traffic, and maintained long uptime for anonymously uploaded images.
Its lifetime as ‘an image hosting service that doesn’t suck’ could only last until a replacement arrived. Traffic plunged after Reddit introduced its own image hosting in 2016, but Imgur stayed afloat using increasingly aggressive advertising and paid features.
In its current incarnation, the site is a social media platform built on images and gifs. Scrolling through it gives the impression of a higher resolution Instagram, or a less musical TikTok – with an abundance of user comments and Reddit’s upvote/downvote system.
This paradigm shift from image host to social media platform has led to a disappointing, if predictable outcome: the blanket ban on sexual content and pornography.
Popularity + profit > porn
Tumblr committed to a similar decision in 2018, demolishing its traffic and leading to a sale for $3 million. In 2021, OnlyFans announced a ban on sexually explicit content citing payment processor challenges which was later reversed.
OnlyFans to Ban Explicit Sexual Content Starting in October https://t.co/u3CNe663fI pic.twitter.com/9fKwQZRIJO
— XBIZ (@XBIZ) August 19, 2021
Reddit is no stranger to restrictions on sexual content. NSFW subreddits were dominated by explicit gifs hosted on Gfycat’s high quality encoding in the mid-2010s. Gfycat later launched Redgifs for explicit content and banned that content from Gfycat itself.
Reddit’s pursuit of mainstream social media recognition has also led to increasing restrictions on sexual content. Some of these restrictions are undoubtedly necessary, such as its late ban on sexual content with minors, or its eventual move to curb involuntary pornography.
Recently Reddit has broadened its restrictions on adult content. Notably, PC users cannot make image posts to NSFW subreddits, functionally prohibiting them from using Reddit’s image hosting for pornography.
PC users must instead use alternative hosts, such as Imgur or Redgifts to host the content. Curiously, this restriction can be circumvented by posting via Reddit’s mobile app – at least at time of writing.
Why’s the porn gone?
Imgur’s ban on sexual content is the latest effort by social media platforms to be more palatable to payment processors and advertisers. Concerns from payment processors were a key reason for OnlyFans’ proposed explicit content ban. Adult content also remains contentious for Tumblr and its continued access to the Apple Store.
Although this change is disappointing to Reddit and Imgur users who used the platform to store and view sexual content, the pattern is familiar. Just as Redgifs appeared with Gfycat’s explicit content ban, an alternative to Imgur will most likely appear.
This ban will seriously impact sexual content on Reddit hosted by Imgur, including a large amount of old material, but Reddit itself has not implemented a similar ban. At least not yet.
