Although the social media platform did issue a blanket statement indicating that the Tumblr team was working to resolve an undisclosed "issue," it wasn't until Download.com confronted the Yahoo-owned company with its own findings regarding the allegations of illegal content that it confirmed the filter mishap.
The most recent statement issued by Tumblr states that the company is "committed to helping build a safe online environment for all users, and we have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to media featuring child sexual exploitation and abuse."
"As this is an industry-wide problem, we work collaboratively with our industry peers and partners like NCMEC [National Center for Missing and Exploited Children] to actively monitor content uploaded to the platform," the Monday statement reads. "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."
It later explains that child porn content, which had not been previously flagged in the "industry database," was discovered by Tumblr officials during a "routine audit." The content was immediately removed from the platform.
"We're continuously assessing further steps we can take to improve, and there is no higher priority for our team," the statement concludes.
Despite the content having already been removed, the Tumblr app has still not been restored on Apple's App Store. However, it is still available in the Google Play store for Android users, according to The Verge.
Erin Farrell, a media relations manager for NCMEC, told Sputnik on Tuesday that the center operates the CyberTipline, a centralized reporting system for online child sexual exploitation that is used by various electronic service providers to detect illegal content.
"NCMEC recognizes that global efforts to reduce the proliferation of online child sexual exploitation online requires an industry-wide effort and applauds all [electronic service providers] that engage in voluntary efforts to provide content safeguards for their users."
According to Download, it wasn't until last weekend that reports suggested Tumblr's sudden disappearance from Apple's platform was related to inappropriate content that violated App Store guidelines. Tumblr's removal was first reported by tech news site PiunikaWeb on November 16.
This latest incident isn't exactly the first time that Tumblr has landed in trouble over sexually-themed content. The platform was previously blocked by the Indonesian government in March of 2018 for failing to remove explicit material. It was also told in 2017 by the South Korean government to remove similar adult content.