Today’s Post by Joe Farace
I was recently censored, banned, shadow banned and given the ban hammer treatment by Instagram. To put it into perspective, one of the six offending photographs is shown at below left. What I found interesting about this particular image was just a week or so before being banned, I received an email from Instagram (below right) telling me that this same photograph was “Your Post with the most accounts engaged.” So they don’t think I should have posted it but then tell me that it’s my most popular image? I don’t get it and that’s the real scoop on how Instagram handles censorship. Nobody knows how it works and they ain’t never gonna tell you. But while that’s my personal tale of woe, there’s more to this story…
From time to time I hear from photographers and models that have posted images on social media only to have them deleted by the platform’s censors or finding themselves being banned. The image at right that I made of Pam Simpson is a perfect example of what was recently deleted by Instagram’s censors. While their policies and procedures remain secretive and enigmatic, one thing is certain about this process: If anyone on a social media site complains about your photograph they will delete it no matter what the content may be.
Most social media platforms have rules prohibiting images of nudity in any form although these “rules” seem to vary widely in both their application and enforcement. The exception is Twitter who has always had a broad minded attitude about nudity. At Tumblr it was i=originally the Wild West and apparently anything went until it’s new ownership changed all that and a large number of their users departed. Lately they claim to have relaxed these changes but my own recent experience proves that this is not true. Pinterest was more open-minded but these day seems to have adopted a more conservative approach—unless it is a paid advert, which also seems a norm for other social media sites. The less said about Facebook the better.
So what can do you do if you want to post images that might be of a more sensual or provocative style? Here’s some tips but because of the capricious way that “rules” on any of these sites are enforced, I can’t guarantee they will work:
The people running Instagram (and Facebook) are obsessed with women’s nipples. The safest thing to do is if there is even a hint of nipples in a portrait is to use Photoshop and paste something, even if it’s just squiggly lines, over the so-called offending body part. That seems to satisfy the censors. On the other hand, if a subject’s nipples are covered by either a see-through garment, hands or anything that partially covers them—men’s body parts seem exempt from this rule—that may or not be OK depending on what the censors had for breakfast or if they had a recent argument with their spouse. Some—and who knows where the line is drawn—see-through images seems to be (key words) OK with the censors and this is especially for ad-related content. Also photographs prominently featuring the female derriere seem to be acceptable to the censors, again for reasons that are not definable, perhaps even to themselves. It could be that these unknown and secretivr censors are obsessed with a certain Seinfeld* episode…
There been so much on-line frustration with Instagram that a 300-page book called, “Pics or It Didn’t Happen” edited by Arvida Bystroemand and Molly Soda was produced using images banned from the social media app. Having received many takedown notices themselves, Bystroemand and Soda asked avid Instagrammers to submit their own censored images. The book provides a fascinating picture of 21st century society’s complex views on the image of the human body and censorship. It’s a fun read and costs $22.93 with used copies sell for less than seven bucks.
*”The Fusilli Jerry” is the 107th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. Featuring the introduction of David Puddy, the episode also features Kramer receiving vanity license plates for his car that say “ASSMAN”