It’s now known that the reason social blogging site Tumblr mysteriously went missing from Apple Inc.’s App Store was because it had allowed some users to post images of child pornography.

The app disappeared from the store on Friday, but up until now, no reason had been given for the disappearance. The Oath Inc.-owned site only said that it was working on the issue.

Then in an updated statement Monday, Tumblr said the reason was that child pornography had appeared on the service. That content has since been removed.

“Every image uploaded to Tumblr is scanned against an industry database of known child sexual abuse material, and images that are detected never reach the platform,” said the message. “A routine audit discovered content on our platform that had not yet been included in the industry database.”

The app is still available in the Google Play store, but it remains removed from the App Store. Tumblr said getting the app back in the store is a top priority. The site remains popular, with about 23 million monthly users in the U.S. alone, according to Statista.

It’s no secret that the service has carried a large amount of pornography, which led to the Indonesian government temporarily blocking the site in 2016. Tumblr is also blocked in China, Iran and Kazakhstan.

In the wake of the App Store removal, now some users are complaining that there has been a purge on the site. The Daily Dot reported that both NSFW (Not Safe For Work) and SFW (Safe For Work) accounts have been removed, yet some of these accounts deemed “inappropriate content” apparently were more in line with erotic artwork.

I am absolutely devastated. I worked so hard to build a following on tumblr and it took so much energy and work and tears and now it‘s all gone.

— Jas (@jaspurrlock) November 19, 2018

Other accounts were removed and then reinstated. One such blogger was told by Tumblr that the reason for the removal was only a “glitch in our system.” Many others believe their accounts do not breach any terms of service, a reason why a #tumblrpurge hashtag has now started on Twitter.

coincidentally, just as i start to consider making a blog for nsfw art, tumblr starts suddenly mass-purging ppls art blogs for sensitive content…yikes

— Mewtowo (@mewtowo) November 20, 2018

Image: Pixabay