DeviantArt

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DeviantArt, historically stylized as deviantART, is an American online art portal and community, first launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others. The site started off as a user-submitted repository for those interested in user interface customisation, e.g. WindowBlinds themes and skins for software such as Winamp and cellphones, but has since expanded its scope towards art in general, particularly traditional illustration, photography and CGI.

While it has been a go-to venue for those wanting to express themselves through art and maybe gain commissions on the side, the site experienced a decline in its reputation in recent years, in part due to an influx of neurodivergent and/or special needs people—mostly children or adults with an affinity for children's media such as My Little Pony and Pokemon, as well as actual miscreants who pose a serious threat to aforementioned children on the site.

Controversies

Ableism and cringe culture

See the main articles on this topic: Ableism and Cringe culture

There had been a surge of users in recent years from communities deemed by the usual edgelords and assholes as so-called "lolcows", i.e. people with eccentricities who are susceptible to trolling and are easily mocked and bullied. Because of dA's lenient moderation and ease of registration, it became quite easy for those perceived as "freaks" and "weirdos" to post any and all content, namely crude MS-Painted 'fan art' of their favourite fandoms such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokemon, MLP and Thomas the Tank Engine, among others. This unsurprisingly led to said users (and the site as a whole) becoming an easy scapegoat and target of reactionary ridicule and scorn, and is often cited as a textbook example of cringe culture.

Adult and fetish content

"Such bizarre obnoxious fetish artwork makes me nervous, I don't want my feet exposed; it feels like a disservice!"

Despite dA initially adopting a policy against outright pornography, they allow what they define as "tasteful" nudity, even photographs, and later updated their policy to allow illustrative smut provided it is paywalled or not otherwise easily accessible, the site did gain a rather dubious reputation for being a fetishist hotbed, often if not always featuring rule 34 art of cartoon characters having their clothes ripped, feet and/or bodies inflated to kingdom come, and many more, a notable subject of which is Sega mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, whose fandom in general has been the subject of ridicule and parody for their eccentric obsession with the blue blur.

While it need not to be said that porn isn't necessarily the morally bankrupt medium conservatives often paint it to be (provided it is done within reason, mind you), but the aforementioned lax enforcement and content moderation on dA allowed certain users to post even more disturbing submissions such as those of characters who are canonically underage. That being said, the kink deluge understandably turned at least some people away, especially considering how minors which make up a not-so-insignificant chunk of the user base could very well easily access such mature content; an announcement by DeviantArt regarding 18+ submissions was interpreted by some as a veiled crackdown on fetish art, much to the consternation of those demanding freedom of expression.

Manchildren and sex predators

And alongside fetish content is the ever-recurring issue of paedophilia and child sexual abuse imagery, while not unique to dA, is still a matter of concern especially with underage members congregating on the site (and unfortunately becoming easy lolcow bait in the process). This unfortunately became a cause célèbre for the transphobia crowd, particularly when a certain 'news' site of questionable veracity ran an article about a supposed transgender sex offender whom they also deadnamed; searching for the person online only leads to the article in question, putting said report in doubt.

Generative AI and the issue of copyright

In keeping with the artificial intelligence boom of the 2020s, DeviantArt wholeheartedly embraced the use of generative and deepfake "art" for those who want to churn out randomly-generated "paintings" with none of the effort that legitimate artists have spent years perfecting. On top of its recent dubious reputation regarding mature content and appeal to autistic kids and special needs people, a significant portion of the dA community expressed outrage over what it deems to be an affront to creativity especially as the artwork generated by AI models are by and large culled from copyrighted images without the consent of those whom the AI models' authors kanged wholesale. A number of artists, including but not limited to former dA members, filed suit against the site and numerous other generative AI services for copyright infringement over the datasets used to generate AI art; In July 2023, U.S. District Judge William Orrick was inclined to dismiss most of the lawsuit filed by Andersen, McKernan, and Ortiz but allowed them to file a new complaint. Not helping matters is with the AI art generators being abused by some members to churn out disturbing material involving children, especially considering how a portion of the datasets used do involve juvenile images culled from the web.

See also

• Kiwi Farms, a forum dedicated to perpetrating cringe culture and is just overall composed of creeps
• Lolcow, a general term used to describe the common victim of cringe culture, created by above forum
• Encyclopædia Dramatica, one of dA's harshest critics no less, though for all the wrong reasons