Imgur is set to ban all explicit images on its platform from May 15, as per the platform’s updated terms of service.
The company said its focus will be on removing “nudity, pornography, & sexually explicit content” from the site.
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The image hosting platform, owned by Medialab, explained that explicit content formed a risk to Imgur’s “community and its business” and disallowing such stuff will “protect the future of the Imgur community.” The company added it will still allow artistic nudity but expects there might be some issues at first as it is switching to a mix of automatic and human moderation.
“Artistic nudity will continue to be permitted, as it was permitted under the Rules previously – however, since we’re calibrating automated detection in these early stages, some content that may have been permitted under “artistic exceptions” previously may not apply here. We will not be issuing any warnings, account suspensions, or bans in relation to these automated flags – but this may impact what is allowed to be submitted or uploaded,” Imgur said in a blog post.
The change will certainly affect many users who have used Imgur to store images that are then shared on other platforms.
“We understand that these changes may be disruptive to Imgurians who have used Imgur to store their images and artwork. These changes are an important step in Imgur’s continued efforts to remain a safe and fun space on the internet.”
One of these platforms is Reddit, where many NSFW subreddits heavily rely on Imgur for hosting explicit content since the platform did not support image uploads at first, as pointed out by Christian Selig, the developer behind Reddit client Apollo:
“Another thing to note is that just today Imgur banned sexually explicit uploads to their platform, which serves as the main place for NSFW Reddit image uploads, due to Reddit not allowing explicit content to be uploaded directly to Reddit.”
You can check the updated Imgur terms of service here.