There was a rumor going around that DeviantArt would be purging NSFW content later in the year with the roll out of DeviantArt Eclipse. DeviantArt user Penjelum posted the rumor in their on-site journal, but was promptly banned for the post a day later on April 20th, 2020. DeviantArt responded to our news story about the content policy change, stating that there will be no change in the type of content they allow on the site… however, they did this while more artists posted up ban notices indicating that their art is being purged from the site.
In response to the original article, DeviantArt posted the following tweet on April 20th, 2020.
There will be no change in the type of content allowed on DeviantArt as a result of DeviantArt Eclipse.
— DeviantArt (@DeviantArt) April 21, 2020
The message doesn’t really clarify much and they didn’t make a post about it to further elucidate the concerns put forward by Penjelum, not only regarding the censorship of art but also in regards to what they labeled as mismanagement on DeviantArt’s behalf when it comes to accounts with commission credits being shut down or banned and not being able to redeem or refund the commission, or the lack of enforcement of art theft.
But beyond the politics of how DeviantArt is operated, the censorship issue is still at the forefront of what’s affecting a lot of artists even without DeviantArt Eclipse being in place.
Back on March 27th, 2020 artist TGSmurf posted a message from the DeviantArt’s moderation staff regarding the ban of his drawing of Megumin from KonoSuba. The drawing consisted of Megumin posing on a broom in a string bikini and a cropped-halter top, which showcased ample cleavage of her large, perky breasts.
Deviantart decided to remove a 4 years old Megumin fanart of mine because they suddenly now consider sexualizing fictional characters below 18 isn’t okay, even though the fanart was litterally supposed to be an adult version.
Eh. Okay. pic.twitter.com/92Xjz4ht7V
— TGSmurf (@TheGoldenSmurf) March 27, 2020
If you’re unable to view the image in the post, there’s a larger version of the image you can view below.
If the image doesn’t load, the relevant part states…
“Based on our staff review it has been determined that the character(s) depicted in this deviation in a nude, crotic or sexually compromising fashion is classified as being under the age of 18 in their original context.”
The image was originally submitted to DeviantArt way back on April 7th, 2016.
So moderation staff are retroactively going through and removing old art that they deem violates DeviantArt’s terms of service.
Others also chimed in to corroborate TGSmurf’s story about DeviantArt removing their fanart even if they did “age up” the characters to avoid having the art removed from the platform.
glad i never did fanart.
but i had mass butt hurts once mass report and spam on my account until it was taken down, and it was just the more organized one.
— (artrades OPEN) UnHolyBirth Theunholyborn🔞 (@theunholyborn) April 1, 2020
Haha, wow… MY Megumin drawing was removed around this time as well. I doubt it’s a coincidence.
— iRYANiC (@TotallyiRYANiC) March 28, 2020
Patreon has been doing something similar, removing art or banning accounts of artists who draw anime characters they claim are “underage” or “minors”. They stated that they weren’t removing “Japanese style” drawings, but they used anime-style drawings as the criteria for how they determined characters to look “underage”, citing large eyes, lack of wrinkles, and youthful faces as the reasons for banning the art and artists.
In DeviantArt’s case, even if they don’t change the terms of service as indicated in the initial rumor, the fact that they’re still retroactively purging art – some of which isn’t even NSFW – should raise flags with some artists.
There’s also the issue of some artists having their fanart taken down due to copyright claims from rights holders. This happened with an artist who made Lord of the Rings fanart and Warner Bros., issued a DMCA claim on the art so it was all removed from DeviantArt.
Artist Yuuza explained how all their Lord of the Rings fanart was removed due to the DMCA claim back in December of 2019…
“So apparently all my “lord of the rings” art was removed from dA because of of a DMCA takedown notice filed by none other than Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
“I see there are still plenty of fanarts of LOTR on dA and i don’t understand why mine was specifically targeted. And why would they even go and remove a piece of fanart sitting on dA, i mean, it was just on display, i made no money off of it. Some of those drawings were made 6 years ago. 6 years ago! Now they decide to take my art down? So, we’re like not allowed to draw fanart anymore? Why is there even a FANART category on dA if we’re not allowed to draw any fanart. Is that some sort of trap? Submit your fanart here, then NOOO take down that evil fanart you drew illegally!
“Dude like WTF man. I am shocked.” [sic]
Even if DeviantArt doesn’t change the rules on the front facing policy pages, it’s still pretty apparent that some art and artists are still being purged. Whether or not it will escalate with DeviantArt Eclipse is completely up in the air.
(Thanks for the news tips Guardian EvaUnit02 and Dickie Peterson 64)