Are Only 'Attractive' Types of Nudity O.K. on Instagram?

BY KARISSA BELL

Instagram is again coming under fire for its inconsistent treatment of photos of women's bodies. Last week, the company briefly suspended the account ofVogue's creative director Grace Coddington after she posted a photo of a whimsical sketch.

The sketch in question was a self portrait that depicted Coddington lounging in a chair wearing only a pair of high heels. Soon after, the photo — Coddington's inaugural post to the service — was removed and her account was suspended, a move that was quickly called into question on Twitter.

Realizing its mistake, Instagram hastily reinstated her account and Coddington later poked fun at the incident in a subsequent post on the service with another, this time censored, sketch.

SEE ALSO: Woman Beautifully Defends Her Body After Instagram Removes Her Butt Selfie

An Instagram spokesperson confirmed to Mashable on Friday that Coddington's photo was removed by mistake. "When our team processes reports from other members of the Instagram community, we occasionally make a mistake. In this case, we wrongly removed content and worked to rectify the error as soon as we were notified. We apologize for any [in]convenience," a spokesperson said via email.

But then there's the case of blogger Meghan Tonjes, who chronicled her weight loss journey on Instagram and had her "butt selfie" recently removed from her account.

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The company later restored the photo, following an outpouring of criticism on social media, and specifically apologized to Tonjes, who had posted the photos as means of self-empowerment in her effort to lose weight. "Our guidelines put limitations on nudity and mature content, but we recognize we don't always get it right," a spokesperson reportedly told her.

But both cases raise the question of why these kinds of "mistakes" seem mostly to happen when the photos are of women with average body types. Racy photos of self-proclaimed "butt selfie queen," Jen Selter, and Kim Kardashian remain online with no apparent objection.

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Instagram does apparently draw the line somewhere though — even for celebrities. Earlier this year, Rihanna shut down her Instagram account for good, after the site reportedly threatened to ban her for posting photos of herself posing topless for the cover of French magazine Lui.

Instagram's spokesperson did not elaborate on why some photos are flagged for removal while others remain online but referred us to the company'scommunity guidelines. They hardly clarify Instagram's policies, however.

Don’t share photos or videos that show nudity or mature content.
If you wouldn’t show the photo or video you are thinking about uploading to a child, or your boss, or your parents, you probably shouldn’t share it on Instagram. The same rule applies to your profile photo. Accounts found sharing nudity or mature content will be disabled and your access to Instagram may be discontinued[emphasis added].

"May be discontinued" seems to confirm that there is in fact some gray area as far as what actually qualifies as inappropriate — that could be the culprit for the subsequent lack of fairness in banning photos.

While some of the inconsistency may be attributable to Instagram's users, who are often the first to bring questionable photos to the company's attention, the responsibility falls squarely on the company to make sure its policies are consistent for all its users, not just those who look a certain way.

http://mashable.com/2014/05/23/instagram-nudity-guidelines/