AMANDA ROSS
Staff Writer
amr8469@psu.edu

On Feb. 19, 2024, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg responded to a question on his personal blog “photomatt” from user “cowgirl-cow-girl” about allegations of improper moderation concerning the accounts of transgender women on the social media platform Tumblr. Since the time of this post, a number of responses, allegations, and similar backlashes have created an intense controversy on the site. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the situation along with other pertinent issues relating to the current.  

The ask, or question, sent to Mullenweg, from user “cowgirl-cow-girl” reads, “You gonna do anything or make any statement about the rampant transmisogyny on this hellsite, especially in cases like predstrogen recently? Or y’all gonna stay silent and keep letting/making us get pushed off of it.” This is referencing the long term situation of a transgender woman on the site known as Rita. Rita’s main blog, predstrogen, was originally banned from the site seemingly without reason after the inappropriate content sensor on the website accidentally flagged a selfie of hers. The selfie was not explicit in nature, and showed two pictures of her, one a year before beginning estrogen and the other after. Rita began to speak openly about this, leading to an influx of attention on her blog. During this time, a mass reporting and harassment campaign began against Rita, leading to her blog again being banned. Rita also alleged that it had taken Tumblr staff 2 months to reply to her email regarding this issue. As of now, “predstrogen” is still banned. 

Mullenweg responded, claiming that he had received a number of asks in regards to the topic, and that he wanted to use the ask as a way to respond to them in bulk. He alleged that the issue regarding the improper moderation of transgender users was due to an external contract moderator who was terminated along with Tumblr cutting ties with their agency. He specified that Rita was a special case, due to improperly tagged explicit posts, harassment of other users and threats against Tumblr staff. He claimed that Tumblr and Automattic, Tumblr’s parent company, are willing to involve police if the matter becomes more serious. He also advised against rash or inappropriate statements. Finally, Mullenweg included a post from “predstrogen” that read as follows, “I hope photomatt dies forever in a painful death involving a car covered in hammers that explodes more than a few times and hammers go flying everywhere”. This was included as an example of the threats Rita has made. 

The post quickly began to circulate, with the ask having accumulated a total of around 14,600 notes, or interactions, as of Feb. 20, 2024. Many users objected to the perceived hostile tone of Mullenweg’s incitement of police involvement. It is also worth acknowledging that Rita’s statement against Mullenweg most likely does not constitute what is known as a true threat. A true threat must be a direct and serious expression of intent to commit bodily harm or death upon another person. Rita’s statement is most likely a statement of political hyperbole, or something that is meant to communicate a political stance without any actual intent. This speech is protected by the Supreme Court’s ruling on “WATTS V. UNITED STATES”.

Another user, “tinystepsforward” who worked on Tumblr Staff, clarified that Mullenweg is on sabbatical as of the moment. This is corroborated by a post on Mullenweg’s personal website, ma.tt. They also alleged that Mullenweg has been pressuring leadership within Automattic to fire people while speaking how those fired should be those who do not fit the company’s culture. “Tinystepsforward” claimed this came with loaded language that targeted queer employees. This ties back into a past lawsuit against Tumblr by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, over the implementation of the ban on explicit content and the algorithm that flagged potential inappropriate content. It ordered Tumblr to hire an expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as to review certain approved appeals to attempt to locate any possible bias in the algorithm. This algorithm was alleged by many users to unfairly target transgender selfies that did not break the terms of the service. This combined with the current situation creates a pattern of behavior that has caused many to cast doubt on the quality and culture of Tumblr’s moderation. As of now, this situation is still ongoing.