The social media site Tumblr announced new community guidelines to crack down on users promoting self-harm – things like suicide and eating disorders. The move created a lot of controversy among users, with some arguing they should be able to use the site to express themselves freely.
The Tumblr staff blog wrote that the most common critique of the new guidelines was something like this:
“This is really great, but what about people who just talk about it? They aren’t promoting it in any way, but like some of us just express ourselves through posting about it. I don’t promote self-harm or eating disorders or anything, but I do talk about my experiences with these things. Do those count as something that’s going to be banned?”
The debate about how to handle sensitive topics in media and social media isn’t new. I spoke with Susan Manzi, Joymara Coleman and Salonje Rochelle from the organization Youth in Mind – that advocates on behalf of young people who have faced mental health issues.
Listen to their conversation at TurnstyleNews.com. This story was originally published on March 6, 2012 on TurnstyleNews.com.