On Wednesday, an automated system on Tumblr banned several ’Sub-200’ accounts, some erroneously. Tumblr users faced confusion after numerous accounts were banned the same afternoon by an automated process. Many affected users communicated with The Verge, stating that the bans disproportionately impacted accounts owned by trans women, who received no specific reasoning for account termination. The email notification stated, “This action was taken as the result of an internally-generated report. Automated means may have been used to identify the content at issue.”
Chenda Ngak, head of communications for Tumblr’s parent company Automattic, confirmed the bans and stated that many were mistakes, which have since been revoked. “We consistently work on maintaining platform health and adapting systems to stop harmful actors. During this process, our automated system has mistakenly flagged several users, including members of the trans community. We’ve disabled that system and restored those users while we improve it. We sincerely apologize to those affected by this mistake.”
The bans occurred just after Tumblr reversed an unpopular change to its reblogging system, which had upset many users. Some people who reached out to The Verge speculated that the bans targeted posts opposing this change, but Ngak clarified that, “The terminated accounts are unrelated to the recent reblogging discussions.” Ngak added there was “no evidence” that the trans community was disproportionately impacted.
Several users voiced concerns reflecting a history of moderation mishaps on Tumblr, notably those affecting trans individuals. In 2024, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg publicly clashed with a trans user known as predstrogen over her account’s suspension. Predstrogen had criticized Tumblr’s inaction against harassment and made a controversial statement about Tumblr’s CEO. Following this, her Tumblr account was deactivated, but the dispute continued on social media, where Mullenweg disclosed private account names, including predstrogen’s secondary blogs.
This situation is not the first moderation challenge for Tumblr. In 2022, it settled with NYC’s Commission on Human Rights regarding accusations linked to a 2018 adult content ban, which allegedly disproportionately affected LGBTQ+ content. This ban, implemented before Automattic’s acquisition, involved accuracy issues flagged by Verizon, Tumblr’s previous owner. The CCHR settlement required Tumblr to revise its moderation algorithms and adjust user appeals to mitigate bias.
In recent years, Automattic has reduced Tumblr’s scale. In 2023, after missing growth targets, Mullenweg confirmed to The Verge that most non-support, safety, and moderation staff were reassigned to different divisions.