New York Post

Tumblr fumblr on porn

Victims say site unfair to women

- By JULIA MARSH jmarsh@nypost.com

Tumblr acts as if it’s a staunch champion of women’s rights by supporting such groups as Planned Parenthood — but it still refuses to help tackle revenge porn, victims say.

A 27-year-old Bronx woman sued the blogging site in Manhattan Supreme Court last week after a tape of her having sex with her boyfriend 10 years ago, when she was just 17, was posted in December and shared 1,200 times.

The post included the woman’s name and a link to her Facebook page.

She only learned that the private X-rated video was on the site when strange men started contacting her through Facebook with obscene messages such as, “Did you like the way his c--k felt? Sure looks like you did.”

“I was devastated,” the woman told The Post. “I haven’t stopped crying since.”

Tumblr finally removed the video three weeks after it was posted — a day after a reporter contacted the company.

But there are still plenty of other private, sexually explicit photos and videos being posted as part of so-called revenge porn by ex-lovers and others, victims say.

Meanwhile, Tumblr’s founder and CEO, David Karp, is on the board of such pro-women’s-rights groups as Planned Parenthood, leading a fund-raising campaign that gave $80,000 to it last month.

Victims say they are outraged over the site’s apparent contradict­ory behavior.

“In my opinion, Tumblr has chosen to ignore valid legal demands because they earn more money using victims’ photograph­s as clickbait than they do protecting minors,” said the suing woman’s lawyer, Daniel Szalkiewic­z.

“We review all reported content and remove any posts in violation of our community guidelines,” a Tumblr spokeswoma­n said.

But that’s not enough, critics say.

A 52-year-old mother of two discovered nearly a dozen private semi-naked images of her with her husband that had been posted to the site after she lost her phone.

“I don’t understand how a Web site could humiliate someone this way,” the California mom said, bursting into tears.

The posting included links to her LinkedIn and Facebook pages, as well as a recitation of her résumé and the message “expose the whore.” It has been commented on more than 50,000 times.

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