The reason Tumblr users who posted explicit content were banned was because of advertising revenue as mainstream (the large) advertisers are not so keen to position their products next to gifs of hardcore porn. The curse of chasing advertising revenue in play as once you rely on them for income, they own you and then will shape content to their needs, not the user or consumer demand. Advertising in this way essentially kills the free market on content.

But, Tumblr is not the only platform that is undergoing the user demonetization crunch due to advertisers, Patreon is another with some of their large names demonetized and others leaving the platform due to it, like Sam Harris this week. Steem is a content delivery platform and is not tied to any form of content. I can be Tumblr, it can be Patreon it can be the applications like podcast players that enable their users to reach new audiences.

If Tumblr had been a Steem app to begin with, it could've filtered the type of content unpalatable to its advertisers without the filtered user community suffering any kind damage other than having to use some other front end instead. Using Steem is a total win-win from every perspective. If need be, it could've crowdfunded the development of a front end tailored to its needs.