Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Tumblr proprietor Automattic, is meant to be on sabbatical. As a substitute, he’s arguing with Tumblr customers over a person content material moderation choice, which has sparked communitywide outcry and accusations of transphobia.

Over the previous few days, the scenario escalated to the purpose that Mullenweg has engaged with the consumer in query on different platforms and shared personal particulars about her account in public.

The controversy started when a consumer with the weblog identify predstrogen was banned. Earlier than the ban, she was annoyed with Tumblr as a result of the platform did not take motion when she reported that she was being focused with transmisogynistic harassment. She additionally claimed her account had been suspended for posting clothed photographs of herself after getting gender affirming surgical procedure. This led her to put up that she hopes that the CEO “dies a without end painful dying involving a automobile coated in hammers that explodes quite a lot of occasions and hammers go flying in every single place.”

In response to Mullenweg, predstrogen was banned for posts that threatened violence in opposition to Tumblr employees, and particularly cited the “without end painful dying” put up. He additionally claimed that her clothed transition photographs weren’t what yielded grownup content material violations.

“We typically don’t touch upon particular person instances, however as a result of there appears to be mass misinformation round this, I’ll make an exception and touch upon predstrogen,” he wrote on his weblog, photomatt. He added, “Tumblr has various LGBT+ together with trans folks on employees, they usually see issues from the within totally, they usually’re not protesting this case.”

Some customers stated that Mullenweg was overreacting, because the language is so cartoonish that it couldn’t be taken significantly. However Mullenweg took the put up as a risk.

“Threats of violence are by no means okay. Threats of violence usually are not protected speech,” he wrote on his weblog. “We are going to work with police and FBI the place acceptable, although to be clear predstrogen’s case hasn’t warranted that up to now. I’m referring to what we could probably do for different threats.”

Tumblr didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Mullenweg took the controversy off platform to X, the place he commented on a put up from the consumer who was banned on Tumblr. Then, on considered one of his Tumblr posts, Mullenweg shared quite a few of her aspect weblog names, which isn’t public data (Tumblr customers usually make empty aspect blogs with no content material in an effort to squat on URLs).

“On the grownup content material mistagging, I added context to say it has nothing to do with clothed transition photographs, she had 20+ different blogs and a number of accounts with names so specific I can’t put up them right here and not using a mature tag,” Mullenweg wrote, then itemizing a few of the accounts by identify.

Except for Elon Musk since he took over Twitter (now X), it’s unusual to see the CEOs of social platforms commenting immediately on particular person content material moderation selections. It’s much more unusual for these CEOs to share personal details about that consumer’s account.

Bluesky confronted an identical scenario final 12 months, but it surely performed out in an reverse method. One consumer stated that they hoped a outstanding Black consumer would get pushed off of “someplace actual excessive.” In that case, Bluesky’s workforce determined it wasn’t a authentic dying risk, which strained the burgeoning platform’s relationship with its Black customers.

“Properly or not, many individuals use violent imagery once they’re arguing or venting,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber posted on the time. “We debated whether or not a ‘dying risk’ must be particular and direct in an effort to trigger hurt, and what it could imply for folks’s potential to interact in heated discussions on Bluesky if we prohibited this sort of speech.”

When juxtaposed, these two moderation selections present the problem that platforms have in making selections about sure varieties of speech. Whereas Bluesky deemed that getting shoved from “someplace actual excessive” is hyperbolic, Tumblr determined that “a without end painful dying involving a automobile coated in hammers that explodes quite a lot of occasions and hammers go flying in every single place” is a sound risk.

Tumblr is in an prolonged downward spiral. Tumblr was acquired by Yahoo (now TechCrunch’s father or mother firm) for $1 billion in 2013, however the platform struggled to the purpose that Automattic purchased Tumblr for simply $3 million in 2019. Final 12 months, Mullenweg stated that the platform loses $30 million annually, and later, he reassigned nearly all of Tumblr’s employees to different tasks within Automattic. However nobody on the belief and security workforce was reassigned, so these moderation selections possible weren’t impacted by the corporate shake-up. Nevertheless, Tumblr has a nasty observe document for content material moderation selections, particularly these involving trans folks.

“We did have an exterior contract moderator final 12 months that was making transphobic moderation (and in addition promoting moderation, criminally),” Mullenweg wrote on his weblog. “As quickly as we had been conscious that individual was fired, and we later terminated all the relationship with that contracting agency and have introduced nearly every little thing in-house (at nice value).”

Mullenweg pinned a put up to his Tumblr titled “My Beliefs and Ideas,” the place he addresses the claims that he’s transphobic. He’s presently on sabbatical till Might.