As fervent Tumblr users already know, their beloved Internet home, replete with reality TV gifs and hashtag-confessions of a hashtag-teenage-tumblr-queen, has a new landlord. Yahoo announced a $1.1 billion deal Monday that will bring Tumblr under the corporation’s wing. Though Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promised “not to screw it up,” Tumblr users are, unsurprisingly, blogging like it’s the apocalypse. “Yahoo just bought Tumblr… This is the beginning of the end,” “They say they would let it continue as a independent business. Don’t you fucking lie to my face,” and “The end is near” are some of the obligatory statements Tumblr creatures must post to save face in the wake of their new forced allegiance with The Man. But one of the biggest questions that Tumblr users have been bringing up is how Yahoo will deal with the NSFW content that some estimate makes up about 10% of Tumblr.
During Yahoo’s Flickr press event last night, Mayer stated that Yahoo has no plans to axe the porn and NSFW material that many Tumblr users hold dear. “It’s the nature of user-generated content,” said Mayer. “I think the richness and breadth of content available on Tumblr— even though it may not be as brand safe as what’s on our site— is what’s really exciting and allows us to reach even more users.”