"PG13" level comics getting removed from the app

[LordVincent]

This is actually getting pretty scary if you think about it. The only reason I can imagine they would ban your comic for lower abdomen hair is because they believe it will lead the reader's mind further down the happy trail to the genital region.

This mentality was common a few hundred years ago. People were required to cover their genitals and nipples because sexuality was sinful. Then they had to cover thighs, belly and chest because those were all areas that people believed would remind people of the "sinful regions".
Then people were required to cover arms, lower legs, wrists and ankles because these were all body parts that they believed would lead the mind to the bodyparts nearby, which would lead the mind to the "sinful regions".

It's very dangerous thinking and more often than not it aimed to silence womens sexuality. The prude wave we see going on online right now does this too. It attacks sites and content that is aimed at women and the lgbt, or contains characters thereof, shutting out more and more content under the excuse of it being "too sexual", while straight up pornographic content aimed at cis men is as easily obtainable as ever.

Big brother Apple wants us to cover our ankles to diminish the slightest thought of sin.

[Kann]

I heard back from two different staff members. HoK got blocked because my male characters have visible body hair in the lower abdomen region.

While it would be a simple edit to make, I'm not going to do it. It's extremely important to me that my characters are portrayed the way they are, warts and all, both emotionally and physically. And body hair is often omitted because it's considered "ugly." I am letting my characters be their "ugly" selves. Muffin tops, body hair, huge disproportionate thighs, all of that stuff.

This is such a silly reason to block a comic. If it were about my characters I wouldn't change a thing too. Our characters are designed the way WE want them to look and not to appeal to some age restrictions on an app dictated by a big company.

Big brother Apple wants us to cover our ankles to diminish the slightest thought of sin.

Ankles? I've drawn a guy exposing his calves. Am I going to Apple hell?

[Nika]

Damn, now I don't even know if I should bother posting my comic on either site. Considering what is it about I have no idea where would I post it to not get deleted ugh.

Honestly every time I'm reading some comic I just can't shake off the feeling that the author had to hold themselves back a lot. Like the main heroes are fighting the unimaginable foes and shit hits the fan but god forbid someone says "shit" or "oh fuck". I know it's not the fault of the creator, but still, it just takes a lot of enjoyment of the comic away Maybe it's just me, but I can't really enjoy clean comics like that, unless the fact that they're clean is part of the comic premise.

[Rodimus13]

Keep in mind it's not getting deleted, it's being blocked on the apple app.

And to the whole what about webtoons thing? Well... last I saw the stats were significantly larger than tapas so maybe they can pay? Or they are already harder on the ban hammer normally? Cause I remember people saying how Tapas was easier.

[indigodrawing]

It should be noted that Apple threatened to remove the Tapas app from the store, on the grounds that several of the comics were not what Apple considered suitable content. Tapas had to bend over backwards to avoid the ban, and thankfully they decided to do it in a way that didn't replicate the Tumblr-pocalypse.

Apple are to blame for this, they'd rather throw their weight around and force people to infantalise their content rather than, say, have a more nuanced app store experience where some apps are targeted at adults rather than kids. Honestly Tapas' options were basically a) do nothing and lose the app, b) Ban all adult content from Tapas, or c) try to find some kind of reasonable middle ground. They chose c.

[Humbug]

This is the reason I'm censoring my comic on Tapas and Webtoon. Now I'm mulling over where to best post the uncensored version.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Now this really is the Artstation situation all over again. As puritan as possible because the site isn't big enough to make a fuss about it. Can't believe I'll have to censor small swear words out of my future pages even though the comic is mostly PG-13, and it's not even Tapas' fault since they need to keep their app.

[joannekwan]

I don't think Tap has an issue with swear words, not any cases I've heard of at least.

It's webtoons with their harsher limitations on mature content that led to people censoring words like 'dick' and 'fuck'.

[Capsona]

I'm just gonna leave this here:

This is in twitter from the artist of the featured webtoon "Let's play":

Hey,
@tapas_app
. There might be some issues with your new "Apple Guidelines" since I've been informed that my comic "Let's Play", which is literally only a picture stating I've been featured on Webtoons, is a violation of Apple Guidelines . . .

link: https://twitter.com/mongrelmarie/status/1159267137053220865?s=20

[LordVincent]

That is not Tapas' fault though... it's Apple.

I get that an artist who isn't even active on Tapas anymore wouldn't know that, but it's very sad to see them giving Tapas a bad reputation over something that is not their fault...

[skicoak]

Da Faq?!? The ad for Let's Play got hit?!?

The AD?!?

[joannekwan]

I mean, they could also contact the staff to find out what's wrong with that image or case specifically instead of shitting on Tap. It says in the e-mail Tap staff is open to conversation. god >:T
For all they know it could be a mistake by whatever algorithm flagged everything in the first place.

[joannekwan]

On another note, I know Tapas wants to play it safe as Apple has threatened to remove the app from the store before, BUT damn, if I were in the same position, I would reinstate @keii4ii's hairy men and go through each flagged case myself.

I will challenge you, Apple.

[keii4ii]

I applaud your noble cause and spirit. But really, I'm not angry, just sad. This is just one of the 100 things that made me feel like I don't belong... and Apple has nothing to do with the other 99 things. I also wouldn't want angry attention on my work, even if that anger isn't directed at me/my work XD

For anyone else affected by this who wants to fight it, though, I hope everything goes as smoothly as possible. I hope the same for the Tapas staff as well.

[akemikae]

If a site wants to block my comic for saying fuck (which I do not shy away from) they can have at it. If I'm writing a story about teenage boys that have a tendency to be crude, I'm not going to prevent them from swearing. It would ruin the characterization.

Same is the case where people are having to censor gasp BODY HAIR? I honestly cannot fathom what kind of nonsense is going through the owner of Apple to think that any of this is okay. It's a shit ton of artists being targeted as well. So much for letting us have artistic integrity. :I

[joannekwan]

Aw thanks. You DO belong though! You've been in this game so long! I remember when I just started out and you were one of the regular faces I came to know and respect here. <3

I do wonder though if whatever algorithm was used to flag all these series isn't somewhat flawed though, like tumblr's sweep. And in tumblr's case, the feature to challenge each flagged post's case was quite useful. I got all of my posts that were wrongly flagged reinstated.

[SuperRazz]

BODY HAIR?! that sucks. If body hair is grounds for removing a comic, then I'm in danger. I have a future episode with a panel showing a character that has cleavage and another panel w/ implicit sex . I guess I should remove it

and Let's play isn't even "overtly sexual or pornographic". Apple, 12 year olds already know what sex is. Censorship is useless

[joannekwan]

I wouldn't censor anything myself unless its already been flagged. You may get away with it?
I was always of the mindset of just posting something first (within reason, following Tap's own guidelines, of course) and then get warned about it later, then choose to comply or not.

[skicoak]

I mean, they could also contact the staff to find out what's wrong with that image or case specifically instead of shitting on Tap.

It flagged an ad for having "Overtly sexual or pornographic material" and "Realistic portrayals of people or animals being killed".

It flagged THIS ad for that.

I understand the desire to defend Tapas but come on... They need to take some heat on this too.

Does this look like the result of getting in the trenches and fighting for the creators? Either these flagged series are being notified by an automated process which Tapas isn't reviewing or they were unable to convince Apple that this ad wasn't porn/snuff images...neither is a good look for Tapas.

[joannekwan]

I know, I checked out the twitter thread. I still think it's some mistake by whatever image-mapping or tag-seeking algorithm Apple is using. Tapas gets stuck as the middle man, relaying what Apple caught to their users, automatically, and not being able to go through it as a case by case basis with less than 20 people on staff to sort through all these until the creator e-mails them back to ask for specifics.

EDIT: Could also be as this person suggested

I dunno, I just think it's a bad look publicly calling out a small company for what could very well be a legit mistake without trying to work the problem out first via e-mail, which Tapas welcomes.