Difficulty shopping for BJD items due to online censorship

I saw the changes too, especially coming from the EU.
For example, recently I found that the word 'bjd' was sort of banned from aliexpress, all the dolls with this name have been renamed simply 'doll' and I also see more ads than before that specify the doll is authentic in the sale title. Actual recasts have pretty much disappeared as well from the whole website where I live (and if you click on a link from google, it says it's unavailable in my region).
The whole sexual dolls scandal with shein had a pretty bad impact and I think at some point the whole website was banned from some european countries, at least for some time, and I think in part that's what involved these changes. I also heard about an extra tax for any item coming from China to the EU for 2026. They really are against any sort of counterfeit I think
So overall, that's a huge change, but a very positive one, aliexpress was probably one of the easiest access to recast dolls, so it's good that measures start to be taken, at least in some countries (I don't know if the same applies in the US or outside the EU for example)
The only "annoying" thing is that some customisation items or outfits (the 1/12th scales one were pretty qualitative in my opinion) are also restricted (a part of the items I had in my wishlists are now unavailable, same applies for eyes or wigs), it's all been mixed up in the restrictions somehow, so that's a shame if there was nothing "recast-related" with these items but it was a necessary change in my opinion.

 

I am not super knowledgeable about Blythe and don't know every nuance regarding their legits/counterfeits in that community, but the Blythe or blythe-like dolls available on AliExpress are essentially also unlicenced copies/fakes. I think the removal has less to do with counterfeit goods and more with AliExpress and others trying to avoid trouble after the Shein issue though.

As for the China-EU customs changes @Lutopienne mentioned above - it's a crackdown on low-value imports that local offerings can't compete with, and chinese companies undervaluing goods and therefore skipping on import and duty fees. Here's a quick explainer. Basically the €150 de minimis will be scrapped and everything imported from China will be taxed from the 1st euro from 2026 on, with further measures put in place in 2028. It's not exactly related to the counterfeit/adult doll issue, but of course the Shein discovery accelerates research on all the systemic risks from similar companies. Importing from China will get more expensive for the end consumer (us) but it's also been ridiculously cheap so far so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

As for the availability of doll goods at the moment - I think we'll just have to wait and see. It's probable that goods will come back on sale once there is more info or more exact regulations in place. There were also some changes regarding importing from China to EU at the end of last year that impacted what was available from AliExpress and similar, that seems to have slowly changed back by now.

Edit to add a disclaimer: I can only comment on the EU side of things and don't know how all this impacts aliexpressing etc in other countries - so please don't take this as blanket info

 

I'm wondering now, if that's the reason why Tumblr flagged a lot of my non-doll, non BJD, and some BJD related posts on there as mature content. Despite me being a thousand percent against sexual content of any kind, and avidly block anything remotely sexual related from my feeds, whether they are dolls or not. They even flagged a giant headed Decora Girz doll I repainted, that has the largest head on planet earth, to be considered anything but alien. Not only that, but she's fully dressed! I thought it was hilarious when Instagram did it a few months ago, but it was extremely annoying to find several of my toy hauls flagged, even a post with a Sasuke Uchiha clear file (a flat piece of plastic that looks like a folder), with a shoulder showing, as "mature content." Just a few hours ago, I saw these things flagged for no reason. Now I"m wondering if it's due to this issue with Shein, which I didn't even know about, because I've never shopped from there, and I only purchase doll hair from Ali. DX

 

Oh, no, Tumblr did that independently! They've been working on the mature content labels this year from way before the Shein thing and it's been a dumpster fire from the get go. They rolled out new updates this week I think, that have somehow made the bad flagging even worse. It has all tangentially to do with the Digital Services Act/Online Safety Act, yes, but Shein or Aliexpress did not cause Tumblr to be like this

 

I was thinking more along the lines of "if there has been inappropriate sex-dolls on the news lately, maybe places like Tumblr might want to censor any and all toy/doll-like content, for any and no reason." I didn't believe Shein or Ali had anything to do with Tumblr. More like what's on the news might be making social sites paranoid about dolls. I might come across as an utter fool, but not that bad. I had hoped. DX

 

I think the issue with Tumblr specifically is that they've been using AI to detect posts with potentially mature content, and-- naturally-- the AI sucks so, so bad at it. I've seen so many random posts flagged for no reason: Kingdom Hearts cutscenes, screenshots of online stores, just anything under the sun... If the AI is so bad at detecting things that it flags Xemnas (adult male) (fully clothed) (no skin showing because his hood is up and he has gloves) walking down a ramp for three minutes as mature, then I can see it looking at something vaguely skin toned and going "AHHHHHH!!!!!!! NOOOOO!!!!!!!" lol.

 

I've heard of this thing and I'm a bit scared that the EU will just go realistic anatomy = sex doll and blanket ban everything that qualifies including BJDs. I've got a doll coming in a couple months and after the sudden BJD ban I admit I got a bit nervous. It makes no sense but this sort of policy usually gets implemented in the stupidest possible way. There will also be implications on further barbiefying of dolls in general, like what happened with China and dingding parts.

 

oh wow! okay, so i am a bjd collector but i customise *** on the side - and all of my usual go-to shops are now ‘no longer available in my region’ including the *** themselves and also the clothing etc. that would explain why!