In the ongoing debate about first amendment rights, an oft-contested concept has been that of levels of censorship in various media. It makes sense that professional publications would be held to a higher standard of responsibility in terms of the content they publish, but despite the incredible lack of standards among the content that is posted in social media, social networking sites have their own filters.

Sites such as Facebook and Youtube regularly filter through their content and remove anything that is inappropriate. The lines are again blurred as to what is and isn’t allowed. According to the first amendment, everything is allowed. Tumblr, apparently believes otherwise.

Tumblr recently banned the posting of anything that glorifies self-harm. Posting about self harm is still allowed, but the site has prevented posters from taking a positive approach to the topic. This is huge for MVHS students, who consider Tumblr an outlet for self-expression. If they can’t express their opinions on Tumblr, where else?

This might seem like a big deal to them, but they must remember that Tumblr is not limiting their freedom of speech completely. Although Tumblr is a medium of communication and expression, it is also privately owned, so it can dictate the standards for content appearing on its site. It says a great deal about the the Tumblr environment that students would be willing to be so open, but it is understandable that Tumblr has limits about what can and cannot be posted.

What is not reasonable is if students have a problem with it. If Facebook and Youtube can censor, then why can’t Tumblr? It is not even as though they are doing so with a political agenda (e.g. censoring posts about abortion or reducing taxes); they are merely demarcating the boundaries of what is decent and acceptable.

Although there have been upsets over similar censoring, students have gotten used it and found ways around it. We will have to do the same for Tumblr, either using other media to express our opinions, or not discussing such sensitive topics on the Internet at all. Perhaps this incident will teach students to keep private details private and be conscious about what they post on the Internet. After all, if it isn’t within Tumblr’s standards, it probably isn’t safe to post anywhere else. Ultimately, we are a media-conscious generation, but we need to learn to be conscious of what we post in various media.