#CurvyGirls and Instagram Censorship
It all began from a simple Facebook post where a good friend of mine, one I would describe as a badass, feminist, PhD candidate, accused Instagram of being sexist for banning photos hashtagged #curvy and #goddess.
Maybe you are asking yourself why I was even looking at my Facebook page in the first place. Nonetheless, I decided to look into the matter with my own independent research.
When I logged into Instagram, a recommended hashtag was #curvygirl, so I clicked on it.
--> Click here at your own discretion: #CurvyGirl
I was SHOCKED.
I have never been confronted by such a clutter of pornographic content (photos and video thumbnails). It made me realise that there are different worlds within the Instagram universe. They function simultaneously, and in parallel, and yet rarely interact -- at least from my perspective. It was almost like discovering a rabbit hole I never expected to fall into and having to quickly crawl out in horror before anyone knew I was down there.
My Instagram world is composed of friends, family as well as travel, health, food and fashion bloggers. Honestly, I was expecting to see a photo collage of voluptuous women (like the one you see in the photo above) feeling great about themselves and hashtagging their pictures to show it, adding a dash of #confidence or #feelinmyself, which I’m down for any day. There was no way I could have been prepared for what I saw in this hashtag space. I was basically eye raped.
After this eye-popping experience, I needed to learn more about the context. Many news outlets including BuzzFeed, Daily Mail, TIME and CNN shed light on the outrage -- including from women's rights groups -- over how Instagram did not manage this correctly. At first they banned #curvy and #goddess altogether. In July, after a storm of protest, Instagram brought back the #curvy hashtag but under careful monitoring to ensure that photos are "body positive".
Photo: Curvamag
In short, Instagram f*(#&d up. Why Instagram thought it would be okay to ban #curvy and #goddess while still allowing hashtags such as #vagina, #noclotheson, #skinny or #anorexic is beyond comprehension. However, after experiencing the pornographic underworld in #curvygirl, I can, to some extent, understand their need to take action quickly even though they handled this in the worst way possible. It was almost as though the multi-billion dollar company couldn't afford to hire a public relations specialist before thinking doing something really stupid.
Something I found interesting, however, was that media outlets were more concerned with fueling the fire of revolt against Instagram rather than taking the time to look into the hashtag spaces themselves. The media used language such as "allegidly" or "reportedly" when citing Instagram's claims that #curvy was being used for pornographic content.
#CurvyGirl is, in fact, a porn hashtag for about half the people that use it. Instead of putting the "over-sharing" users on blast, they put the social media platform under fire instead. What I would like to know is why everytime a social application or website becomes popular, pornographic content and attention hungry users flock to it. All the cool people using Instagram after it first launched now reject the platform, which has become just another item in the social media history museum, just like Instagram's ancestor MySpace.
My question is this: How much is Instagram responsible for this, and to what point are we responsible for pornography inundating every online social network? I'm not saying Instagram should get a pass on this one, but I am saying that people are also responsible for this. Regardless, Instragram needs to figure it out because I don't want to ever experience that gross shit again or I'm deleting my account.
All of which led me to the following:
###
Dear Instagram,
***WTF.***
Concerning #curvy and #goddess, I do not believe that deleting and blocking all content within a hashtag is the appropriate way to take action concerning the issue of nudity or sexism in today's modern world, nor is it going to make people stop posting inappropriate photos of themselves on your public social media platform. However, after coincidentally falling on #curvygirl (you’ve missed a spot), I do absolutely believe it to be your responsibility to put in place a system to block this type of content from those that don't want to be confronted with dicks and blowjobs on a rainy Sunday. I could imagine the balance of not being sexist and trying to manage the slime of humanity is a fine line to walk, but this is what you signed up for so please kindly wake the f$*k up from behind your Kardashian-filled headquarters and find a solution, immediately.
Many thanks,
