What is Shadowbanning?
At CHEEX, we are dedicated to building a community for those curious about sexual stimulation and education, all the way striving to present sexuality with fun, diversity and consent. Instagram is one of our most important channels for us to foster this community and to offer our featured artists an appropriate platform that appeals to a broad audience.
Unfortunately, we face repeated limitations. Instagram rigorously deletes depictions of sexual interactions, female nipples and nudity, independent of their artistic or educational purpose. The heightened censorship of content perceived as related to sex work has also led to an increase in shadowbanning.
Shadowbanning is the act of blocking a user’s content on social media sites without their awareness, only revealing its impact over time via their account metrics. Being shadowbanned means your posts won’t show up for hashtags or your followers’ feeds. This practice disproportionately affects pages run by sex workers as well as queer users and accounts posting content deemed deviant from established norms.
Once shadowbanned, the only way for people to see your posts is to visit your profile. At its best, shadowbanning would theoretically cut out bot accounts or those violating the terms of service. At its worst, the practice serves as an almost invisible form of censorship, silencing certain viewpoints and making space for companies to insert more sponsored content posts. Facebook (owner of Instagram) attributes all perceived injustices to glitches in the hashtag function. Artists affected by shadowbands have described this phenomenon as a “secret denouncing” by Instagram.
Censorship and Discrimination
The issue gained further attention in mid-October this year when a photo by Australian comedian Celeste Barber—which mimicked another post by Candice Swanepoel—got taken down by Instagram. Swanepoel’s photo stayed on the platform. Celeste Barber immediately reacted to her post being deleted; now Nyome Nicholas-Williams as well as Celeste Barber are collaborating with the platform to update their guidelines.
Adult performers can sometimes face even more challenges due to Instagram’s censorship. Despite adhering to community guidelines, their accounts get attacked more than any other celebrities or artists. Most adult performers use Instagram to showcase themselves and promote their brands. When their accounts are deleted, performers lose access to their fans and business connections, potentially impacting their income and livelihood.
While we at Cheex express support for the majority of Instagram’s community guidelines—such as those preventing sexual content involving minors, hate speech and the glorification of violence—we also call for more nuanced censorship regulations. We advocate for a framework which allows users the freedom to publish all content which contributes to body positivity, education about sexual health, portrayal of the female body’s many parts and presentation of aesthetic perspectives on sensuality.
While Instagram’s intention to combat hate speech, violence, sex trafficking and abuse is laudable, the vagueness of their community guidelines can inadvertently harm already vulnerable groups. The arbitrary enforcement of these rules often forces content into less safe spaces. For that reason, we invite members of our community to share their stories of biased & unfair censorship on social media.
By participating in this campaign, you become part of a movement towards a destigmatized way of dealing with nudity and sexuality.
About #uncensoredme
We invite our community to share cases of biased and unfair censorship on social media. The current guidelines lack transparency and often discriminate against certain groups. The ambiguous and arbitrary enforcement of these rules pushes content into spaces that are anything but safe.
By participating in this campaign, you become part of a movement towards a destigmatized approach to nudity and sexuality.
Use #uncensoredme to participate or to learn more about the campaign.
