Oath Inc.-owned microblogging site Tumblr today announced that it will be banning all “adult” content starting in mid-December in what effectively may be a decision by its owner to kill the longstanding service.

Tumblr, founded in 2007 by David Karp, came of age in the early days of blogging as a company with a high tolerance for adult content. The site was acquired by Yahoo Inc. in 2013. Yahoo was then acquired by Verizon Communications Inc. for $4.86 billion in July 2016, and in 2017, the old Yahoo properties were folded into a new business called Oath Inc.

Verizon owning a site that was arguably the largest free platform for sharing porn was never going to end well. Prompted by the app’s removal from the Apple App Store Nov. 20 on allegations of harboring child pornography, Tumblr announced that as of Dec. 17, it was making the service “better” and “more positive” by banning porn.

“Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr” the service wrote. It added that “we recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.”

How much of Tumblr’s content consists of “adult imagery” is debatable. Ars Technica claims it’s around 10 to 20 percent, but that doesn’t account for the traffic that content drives to Tumblr.

A bit like the Google LLC-owned Blogger, Tumblr is a relic of a bygone age that has somehow continued with its own community. The active part of that community, however, was always fond of porn.

Tumblr’s decision to ban porn may be the death knell for the service. It’s not dissimilar to the way SmugMug Inc. has decided to kill at least the more capable version of Flickr, a previously Yahoo/Oath-owned service, by cutting free accounts and deleting much of the site’s back catalog.

Photo: 1nesdliveira/DeviantArt