On Tuesday, the following day, in checking other friends, I discovered L’s Flickr account had vanished.
I had an interesting chat with N, a well-known photographer who uses Flickr. She had her Flickr account deleted back in 2020. She requested an investigation. She found out why and even which particular photo was deemed unfit for Flickr, justifying the termination of the whole account. Rather than appeal, a complicated process, N created a new account and started over.
I can’t help thinking of Tumblr, and its mass transition to a non-porn platform, adversely affecting millions of people. Which platform can any of us depend on? Are we all taking a risk using any of these services?
Flickr: Terms of Service
For years, I’ve seen the fine print for services and software which says I can’t hold them liable if I use their stuff and anything goes wrong. It’s an interesting idea: I engage somebody to do something for me but they’re not responsible if they screw up.
On the other hand, how many of us actually read the rules to find out just what we can and can’t do?
Under Terms of Service, I find Community Guidelines which lists Things not to do, prefaced with:
Here's the deal: We like to give second chances. However, when we discover you stepping across any of the lines listed below, we will take action, which may mean deleting your account with or without warning.
I see what I suppose are standard things:
- Don’t violate copyright laws.
- Don’t harm children.
- Don’t be creepy.
- Don’t upload content that is illegal or prohibited.
- Don’t use hate speech.
... etc.
I make specific mention of “Don't forget to moderate your content” as it merits its own explanation page.
Photos and videos should be categorized as:
- Safe - Acceptable to a global, public audience
- Moderate - Partial nudity, like bare breasts and bottoms
- Restricted - full-frontal nudity and sexual acts; photos only–videos cannot contain restricted content and are deleted if reported
This also notes that accounts themselves are categorized using the same safety levels, indicating if the content has been properly categorized or not. It’s not clear to me if this represents grounds for the termination of an account. In the beginning, I posted a tasteful nude of my Second Life avatar with the default of Safe, all naughty bits hidden. A while later, a bot switched the category to Moderate. In that case, I wasn’t terminated. I then noticed the category of my account was Moderate, meaning I had incorrectly classified something, so I went through changing various things to Restricted and ended up with my account listed as Safe.
I also make specific mention of “Don’t forget to set the appropriate content type” as that, too, gets its own explanation page.
The content type categories are as follows:
- Photos / Videos
- Illustration/Art / Animation/CGI or other non-photographic images, or
- Screencasts / Screenshots - what's a screenshot
I had no idea this content type categorization even existed, and I had to hunt around to figure out where to see it and where to set it. Under settings, you can specific the default categories for searching pictures. Under Organize, you can set the category of an image. Oddly enough, you can’t see the category on the page of the image itself. In reading one of the forums, a user said this used to be visible but is no longer. There was also a message from the CEO of Flickr welcoming Second Life photographers and seeming to say the screenshot category is no longer required.
How can my account be deleted?
Good question. I’m not sure I have a clear-cut answer for that. During my chat with N, she explained there are self-appointed arbiters of taste, and there is always the possibility that some random person could file a complaint about any image, triggering an investigation by Flickr. Okay, I slowly say, wondering about differences of opinion. I’ve seen some pretty graphic sexual images from SL photographers: oral sex, penetration, and money shots and so far, those people’s work is still online. What did D and L do to merit being terminated? Am I going to someday offend some stranger’s sensibilities and find my Flickr gone in a flash? In a pre-emptive strike, I’ve taken to classifying all of my photos as Restricted, thinking I’m not going to get my wrist slapped for being overly cautious.
An Observation: Sex vs Violence
Just now, I scanned through a number of photos, checking their safety levels. A photo of a scantily clad woman is rated as Moderate while a Halloween photo of Victorian England street scene where Jack the Ripper is about to stab a woman with a knife is marked as Safe. Sex bad, violence good. It is what it is, and we must accept the culture we live in and follow the rules.
Nevertheless, I’m reminded of George Carlin’s Seven Words You Can't Say On Television where he replaces the word kill with the word f**k and retells a movie cliché: Okay, sheriff, we’re going to f**k you now. But we’re gonna f**k you slow.
Yes, sex is more of a corrupting influence than violence.
Final Word
It would seem that Flickr can terminate any account without warning. According to the Terms of Service, it would seem there may be no recourse for the user. As of this moment, I now personally know three people who’ve had their accounts deleted.
Why am I using this service? If I’m posting anything which bumps into the Community Guidelines, specifically sex related, am I using the right service?
I see thousands of SL users who have posted thousands of photos, representing an unquantifiable amount of time and effort who are all susceptible to being terminated. Now, I’m sure anyone could argue we all face such condemnation in society, that is, we should not cross the line of accepted so-called normal behavior, but is there a question of a difference in taste? Old saying: One person’s pornography is another person’s erotica. What offends them doesn’t offend you.
Recommendations:
- Restricted
By default, when you set up an account, the Safety Level is Safe. Under my settings, I've changed this to Restricted. Now, when I upload, I don't inadvertently make a mistake. To be quite frank, I do not understand the visibility of the different levels. While I get the Safe means a wider audience, how big of a difference does it make for my viewership? - Restricted by reference
While I publish an image which is innocuous, I may include links in the description to other things, like my blog, where I may have restricted content. Consequently, the image should also be restricted. - Moderate
Let me repeat Flickr's own words: Partial nudity, like bare breasts and bottoms. Would you walk down the street like that in real life? - Private
By default, photos are public. By setting this to Private, I have a chance to review what I'm doing before "publishing" my image by manually switching to Public. - Backup
I must have my own backup of all my images. Flickr's ToS specifically says it's not a cloud service so do not rely on it to store your images.
And I add that none of us know whether at some point, some self-appointed arbiter of good taste takes exception to our work and calls in the Flickr police. Good luck to us all. Too harsh? Let me remind you that Flickr is a private company and can do whatever the heck it wants. When we sign up, we agree to their Terms of Service, and if we violate their rules, they have the right to boot us off their platform. Ignorance is not an excuse; the onus is on us to read the ToS and Community Guidelines.
After Tumblr, I discovered newTumbl. After Flickr, will I discover newFlick?
References
Wikipedia: Flickr
Flickr is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and is a popular way for amateur and professional photographers to host high-resolution photos. It has changed ownership several times and has been owned by SmugMug since April 20, 2018.
Flickr: Terms of Service
If you violate the Terms of Use, Flickr at its sole discretion may (i) require you to remedy any violation thereof and/or (ii) take any other actions that Flickr deems appropriate to enforce its rights and pursue available remedies.
Flickr: Community Guidelines
When we discover you stepping across any of the lines listed below, we will take action, which may mean deleting your account with or without warning.
2021-10-26
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