How to Block Tags on Tumblr
The setting works exactly as advertised, which is why it misses so much — it reads tags, not posts.
To block a tag on Tumblr, open Settings, then Account, then Filtering. Add the word or phrase to Filtered Tags and Tumblr hides any post carrying it.
On the mobile app the path is the account icon, the gear, then Account, then Filtering. On the web it is under Settings in the right-hand menu.
A filtered tag does not delete anything. The post collapses into a gray bar saying it was hidden, with the option to view it anyway.
And the reason this setting disappoints people: it reads tags only. A post about the thing you filtered, published without that tag, arrives untouched.
Tumblr actually gives you two filters, and the difference between them is the whole answer to why blocking a tag feels leaky.
Filtered Tags matches against the tags an author attached to a post. It is exact and it is literal. Filter the word and the post has to carry that word as a tag for anything to happen.
Filtered Post Content matches against the text inside the post itself. This is the one most people actually want and most people never find, because it sits directly below the other in the same settings screen and is named almost identically.
Use both. Put the term in Filtered Tags to catch posts that were tagged honestly, and in Filtered Post Content to catch the ones that were not.
Neither reads images. A post whose entire content is a picture, with no tags and no caption, passes both filters, and on an image-heavy platform that is a meaningful share of everything. There is no setting that fixes this, and anyone telling you otherwise is describing a browser extension rather than Tumblr.
Where the setting actually lives
On the web, click your account icon, choose Settings, and look in the Account section for Filtering.
In the mobile app, tap the account icon at the bottom right, then the gear icon at the top, then Account, then Filtering.
The field takes one entry at a time. Type the term and confirm it; it appears in a list below, each with a remove control.
There is no limit anyone has usefully documented, and people maintain lists of dozens. Worth knowing: the list is per account, not per blog, so running three blogs from one login gives you one filter list across all of them.
Filtered tags against filtered post content
The two sit together and do different jobs.
Filtered Tags hides posts carrying that tag. Because tags on Tumblr are a social convention rather than an enforced taxonomy, this catches exactly the authors who were being considerate.
Filtered Post Content hides posts containing that string in their body text, regardless of tags. This catches a great deal more, and it also produces far more false positives — filtering a short word will hide posts that merely contain it as part of a longer one.
The practical configuration is a short list of precise terms in both fields rather than a long list of broad ones. A filter that hides a third of your dashboard gets turned off within a week, which is worse than a narrower filter you keep.
Three reasons a blocked tag still shows up
First, the post was not tagged. This is the common case and no setting addresses it, because the filter can only act on information the author supplied.
Second, the tag was spelled differently. Tumblr tags are free text, so a term can appear with and without spaces, hyphens, plurals or deliberate misspelling. Each variant is a separate tag and each needs its own filter entry.
Third, the content is in an image. Filters read text; they do not read pictures, and a screenshot of text is a picture.
There is a fourth that catches people out: filters apply to your dashboard and to tag pages, but not to a blog you deliberately open. Visiting somebody's blog directly shows you everything they posted.
Hiding a whole blog instead of a term
If the same source keeps producing what you are filtering, blocking the blog is more effective than widening the filter list.
Blocking from the app: open the blog, tap the account icon or the three dots, and choose Block. From a post on your dashboard, the three-dot menu on the post offers the same.
A blocked blog cannot see your posts, cannot message you, and does not appear on your dashboard. Crucially, their reblogs of other people's posts also stop appearing, which a tag filter would not have caught.
The limitation is that reblogs of their posts by other people still circulate, because on Tumblr a reblog is a separate copy on somebody else's blog rather than a pointer back to theirs.
The community labels switch, which is separate again
Tumblr also has a system of community labels covering mature themes, drug and alcohol references, violence and sexual content.
That sits in Settings under Content, not under Filtering, and it works on labels applied by authors or by Tumblr's own classification rather than on words you choose. You can set each category to show, blur or hide.
It is worth configuring alongside the filters because it covers the image problem that text filtering cannot. A labeled image is hidden whether or not anything was typed.
Its weakness is the mirror of the tag filter's: it depends on correct labeling, and labeling is applied unevenly.
What filtering means if you are the one posting
Every filter someone sets is a reason a post never reaches them, and that has a direct effect on how far anything you publish travels.
Tagging accurately costs reach in the short term — honest tags are the ones that get filtered. It buys something else, which is that the people who do see the post are the people who wanted it, and those are the ones who reblog rather than scroll past.
The opposite approach, stuffing a post with popular tags it does not deserve, reaches more dashboards and gets blocked by more users, and on a platform where distribution depends entirely on other people choosing to republish you, being widely blocked is a worse outcome than being narrowly seen.
This is the structural reason Tumblr growth is slow and durable rather than fast and fragile. The audience that stays is assembled one correctly tagged post at a time.
Questions people ask about filtering on Tumblr
Where is tag filtering in the Tumblr app?
Account icon, then the gear, then Account, then Filtering. On the web it is under Settings in the Account section.
Why does a filtered tag still appear on my dashboard?
Usually because the post was never tagged with it, the tag was spelled differently, or the content is an image. Filters read tags and text, not pictures.
What is the difference between filtered tags and filtered post content?
Filtered Tags matches the tags an author attached. Filtered Post Content matches words inside the post body. Most people want both.
Is there a limit to how many tags I can filter?
No documented limit, and people maintain long lists. The practical limit is false positives: broad terms hide so much that the filter stops being usable.
Does filtering apply to blogs I visit directly?
No. Filters apply to your dashboard and tag pages. Opening a blog deliberately shows you everything on it.
Does the person know I filtered their tag?
No. Filtering is invisible to everyone else, and so is blocking a blog, although a blocked user may notice they can no longer see your posts.
Keep reading
- likes on a Tumblr post — A post that is widely filtered reaches fewer dashboards than its tags suggest, and likes on a Tumblr post is one of the signals readers check before passing something on.
- how tags do the discovery here — Filtering only makes sense once you know how tags do the discovery here, because the tag is the index as well as the filter.
- who is left on the platform — The culture around tagging and blocking is unusually strong for a reason, and who is left on the platform explains some of it.