Madonna, Pick A Side And Stick With It!
Tumblr Takes a Stand Against ‘Self-Harm’ Blogs
Tumblr will release a new policy blocking blogs that promote self-harm — such as anorexia, bulimia, self-mutilation and suicide — in a change to the platform’s Content Policy. The company is asking its community for input on the revised policy, which will be live within the next week.
“We are deeply committed to supporting and defending our users’ freedom of speech, but we do draw some limits,” a Tumblr staff blog post says. “As a company, we’ve decided that some specific kinds of content aren’t welcome on Tumblr.”
While Tumblr, as a company, strongly opposes self-harm and does not want to host such content, it has been torn between whether to prohibit the blogs altogether or direct readers to organizations such as the National Eating Disorders Association, as a public service.
Tumblr’s proposed solution is to change its policy and sponsor public service ads, with links to organizations and help hotline phone numbers, that will appear alongside search results for terms such as anorexia, anorexic, bulimia, bulimic, thinspiration, thinspo, proana, purge, purging, etc.
Below is the proposed change to Tumblr’s Content Policy:
Active Promotion of Self-Harm. Don’t post content that actively promotes or glorifies self-injury or self-harm. This includes content that urges or encourages readers to cut or mutilate themselves; embrace anorexia, bulimia, or other eating disorders; or commit suicide rather than, e.g., seek counseling or treatment for depression or other disorders. Online dialogue about these acts and conditions is incredibly important; this prohibition is intended to reach only those blogs that cross the line into active promotion or glorification. For example, joking that you need to starve yourself after Thanksgiving or that you wanted to kill yourself after a humiliating date is fine, but recommending techniques for self-starvation or self-mutilation is not.
The blogosphere has been known to host support group-like communities for individuals with self-harming behaviors. Pro-ana or thinspiration blogs, glorifying eating disorders and overlooking recovery, have been investigated by The Oprah Winfrey Show and PBS Frontline, among others.
Do you think Tumblr has proposed the right steps to rid the platform of blogs promoting self-harm?
Who YouToobe Should Be Watching: RosstorWho
It is me, I’m RosstorWho. You’re here for me, and I’m here for you.
RosstorWho, the adorable, sexy, British, gay Dr Who fan, who tells horribly lame jokes, but is entertaining all the same, is my new obsession.
I was introduced to the world of Who thanks to the relentlessly un-decaffeinated Youtuber, RolyUnGashaaHD.
Roland basically spearheaded Ross’ desire to keep making Youtube videos.
Apparently, this is the story in a nutshell:
-RosstorWho, a new Youtuber is discoverd by Roland.
-Roland contacts Ross.
-Roland makes a video response to Ross, reading a poem he’s written for him.
If this is all it takes to pick up a man on Youtube, I’ll gladly write a few sonnets… well, at least a couple of knock knock jokes.
AnyWho…
I was not without my suspicions regarding the link between Ross and Roland. Ross began appearing in Roland’s videos. Yes, he traveled to see Roland. The two apparently live a considerable distance from one another — Roland in Devon, and Ross, uh, elsewhere. Were these two already in a relationship? Are they in cahoots with one another, trying to gain views and become Youtube partners? Is this all a scam to rake in some dough? This wouldn’t be a first for Youtube. I’ll avoid naming names, but you can probably already guess who I’m referring to.
Ross also struck me as being a little “too natural” or “too perfect” when it came to his online personality. Was he a strugling entertainer, an actor down on his luck, who created a Youtube account to get noticed? Was he playing a character? Again, we’ve seen this plenty of times. Ross does remind me of a lovable Harry Enfield creation.
Ross has a very nice guitar led opening. Is he a musician? Ross shows off his ability to effortlessly slip into a variety of regional accents. A sign of an actor? Ross even revealed his childhood passion of becoming a DJ/MC of some sort. “Put your hands in the air, and wave them like you just don’t care” Ross belts out in a pitch perfect professional voice-over artist sort of way. Hmm, suspicious.
With all these suspicions, I did a little a digging. Okay, a little stalking. Ross’ real name is Ross Toomey. Nothing appears to link him to any sort of entertainment background. Bottom line: “He’s clean”, as a prison guard would say while removing his rubber gloves.
While I’ll admit that this is incredibly selfish, I hope Ross doesn’t get thousands of viewers. Every time a Youtuber gets big, their videos turn to shit, and they begin to feel that they have to mainstream in order to appeal to a wider audience. The camera equipment they acquire thanks to new revenue, ensures that we get to see them in HD, with a million different special effects and props. I don’t know about you, but there’s something endearing about the amateur quality of Youtube videos. They don’t have to be horrible looking, but they do appear to have been created by someone who is just like you and me, doing videos for fun, a person who puts in a hell of a lot more effort in making their videos the best that they can possibly be with very limited resources.
Like I said: selfish. With someone as entertaining as Ross, I doubt it will take long for him to continue catching on to a much bigger audience.
But in the meantime, here’s looking at you, RosstorWho!
NOTE: If you want to see the photos in their original larger format, right click on them individually and choose “Open link in new window (or) tab”. The exact wording depends on your browser.
