How did Twitter avoid this same fate? Twitter has an iOS app (sort of their main interface nowadays) and they have tons of adult content.
Is Twitter powerful enough to stand up to Apple and Tumblr was not?
Is Twitter powerful enough to stand up to Apple and Tumblr was not?
No idea though if Tumblr had the same option back then.
In 2017, Twitter had dedicated ML resources driving their recommendation engine + human moderators on fallback duty. You need to explicitly opt-in via web app before you can see NSFW using their app.
In comparison, Tumblr struggled with NSFW content as they relied heavily on users to police content.
Without opting-in, pornograhic posts regularly bled into standard content. With the demographics, CSAM content quickly started to do the same.
We've also seen third party Reddit app developers not allowed to feature content that the main Reddit app is despite toggles, and Discord not allowed to feature content that Twitter is.
The policy is badly written and not even Apple's own reviewers understand it, and they overreact to complaints from religious groups.