Censorship on Instagram
Exploring Instagrams’ shadow banning on vaguely ‘inappropriate’ content and how this censorship is discrimination in the age of social media.
It is widely known that social media is the fourth arm of power in an internet-run society. Instagram is a strong marketing tool, an advertising platform and can facilitate the development of a personal brand amongst other uses. Sooo… what happens when your business is shadow banned?? Who decides which businesses are shadow banned?? Who control where the consumers money goes?
Instagram, Facebooks’ ‘child company’ does.
Censorship is challenging entire social-media-run businesses for users falling into categories such as sex-workers, sex positive, body positive, artists and models. Their work is being deleted or banned entirely from the application or it falls into a standard of being “inappropriate” or “sexually suggestive” and thusly being undiscoverable, or ‘shadow banned’. The ‘algorithm’ demotes content that is considered “inappropriate” or “sexually suggestive”.
But what is inappropriate or sexually suggestive? Well… Instagram decides that too.
This has become an incredible contentious issue as SESTA/FOSTA passed in the US Senate in late 2018. Laws making it illegal to assist, facilitate or support sex trafficking. Removing platforms under the Communications Decency Act for user-generated content that does any of those things.
This legislation has made is incredibly difficult, if not impossible for sex workers to run a business through the use of Instagram, many being forced to give up the platform entirely. Instagram’s decisive discrimination of ‘inappropriateness’ and ‘sexually suggestive’ content seems questionable to me?
What is deemed ‘inappropriate’ or ‘sexually suggestive’? How can the algorithm decipher between a lingerie model scantily clad or a sex-worker or someone in a bikini?? The algorithm can’t tell the difference between erotic art and pornography. This kind of censorship disproportionately effects marginalized groups of people, and it disproportionately affects women. Basically, it comes down to the oppression of female sexuality.
Yes, that IS correct it IS 2019. Instagram is an incredibly valuable and lucrative way to self-promote and create a revenue. Online censorship of sexuality has made Instagram, and social media a futile place for sex workers, as workers have to dodge around rules and guidelines that are inherently vague and damaging in its nature.
The erasure of these online voices is a modern day violation of the right to work.
