Popular image hosting website Imgur has announced that it will start shredding explicit content from its platform, starting May 15, in line with the company's updated terms of service. The company says in a blog post that "explicit and illegal content have historically posed a risk to Imgur's community and its business." It will deploy human moderators alongside automated systems while narrowing down on explicit and illegal content.
Our new Terms of Service will go into effect on May 15, 2023. We will be focused on removing old, unused, and inactive content that is not tied to a user account from our platform as well as nudity, pornography, & sexually explicit content. You will need to download/save any images that you wish to save if they no longer adhere to these Terms. Most notably, this would include explicit/pornographic content.
Imgur's latest crackdown is part of a bigger effort that has been going on for several years now. The company has previously revoked access to NSFW Reddit communities and related subreddits. However, users have leveraged Imgur as a platform to upload content and share it on Reddit. The company has previously allowed explicit content on its platform, except when posted as a comment or gallery submission.
Imgur said that it will still allow "artistic nudity" on the platform which was already permitted under previous rules. However, its automated content vetting system might flag some "content that may have been permitted under "artistic exceptions" previously." Imgur adds it won't issue any warnings, account suspensions, or bans related to these automated flags and affected users can raise a support request to get their issue rectified.
In addition to explicit content, Imgur also plans to remove old, unused, and inactive content that is not tied to a user account. This has received criticism from users who argue that it may lead to broken links on the internet and some useful content might get removed as collateral damage.
Via TechCrunch
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