Tumblr is beloved by users who leverage the site's visual and practical features to confront taboo topics and politics. The blogging platform is also frequently derided by those who mock its progressive activists as "social justice warriors."

Yet no measure of contempt seems to deter Tumblr from fully embracing advocacy and activism. The site has an aggressive plan to promote online and IRL activism in the coming year, and it's particularly interested in registering new voters ahead of the midterm elections in November.

On Jan. 20, Tumblr laid out its priorities for the year in a post marking its first-ever Art Action Day. The initiative challenged people to pair content like drawings and images with what they hoped the "headlines and history books" would say for 2018. Users could file their posts under the new campaign hashtag #WhatWillYouDo.

Tumblr developed a specific game plan for 2018, one that focuses on giving a megaphone to marginalized voices and offering its users tangible ways to participate in activism. The company, McCullough says, is also guided by a mantra often expressed by racial justice activists: "We don't need allies, we need accomplices."

Some of the Art Action Day posts were inspirational yet vague, or focused on personal growth, but other users talked about progressive values like supporting "unstoppable women," "amplifying" the voices of American Muslims, fighting for net neutrality, and protecting DREAMers.

But the point of these initiatives isn't to breed more so-called clicktivism, giving users a chance to feel momentarily self-satisfied and then move on with life. That's why Tumblr will spend much of 2018 putting voices and resources in front of users in an attempt to "pull people out of filter bubbles by handing over the mic."

Read the full article about activism on Tumblr by Rebecca Ruiz at Mashable.