For the "get off my lawn" view on Yahoo's Tumblr acquisition, here's internet privacy and neutrality advocate Lauren Weinstein's take on the situation. Despite being a free speech devotee himself, he calls the sale "Yahoo's Big Tumble Into Big Porn, Big Sleaze, and Perhaps, Big Trouble."
Around here we're not as judgmental about content as Weinstein comes off sounding in his post, despite what certain YIBIs (young internet based idiots) think. But Weinstein's view of the multifaceted, polymorphously perverse Tumblr world as the domain of twisted "Uncle Ernies" gives us a foretaste of what will be the consensus establishment view, once people who've just heard about Tumblr start looking under the covers.
Facebook zealots of the hipster persuasion don't like to talk about that company's contractors in developing countries monitoring U.S. posts for bad words and subversive ideas. Possibly because, up until now, the zealots had Tumblr as a place where pre-Facebook-style transgressive net content thrived. David Karp just effectively said, f*ck your freedom, I'm getting paid today.
So, how many months will elapse before erotic Tumblrs start getting flagged by offshore hall proctors?
[edited for tone]