Photographer Damon Baker complained after photos featuring Queer Eye‘s Antoni Porowski in a pair of underwear were removed from Instagram for violating community guidelines.
Wrote Baker in an Instagram story: “There was nothing pornographic or nude about my pictures of Antoni but Instagram deleted the post so now I'm sad and upset. WTF is so offensive about a human body? We all have one! I create to please, to inspire, to push boundaries, to motivate, to change. Instagram failed artists today. I need a hug.”
https://twitter.com/DamonBaker/status/1073351329806934016
Noted Attitude: ‘Instagram has crackdown on profiles displaying the slightest bit on homoeroticism after Warwick Rowers, Greeks Come True and MeatZine accounts – as well as an image of two men kissing was removed – all being banned this year, despite the fact that certain celebrities – Kardashians come to mind – are able to post anything and everything.'
Porowski displayed the images on his Instagram account, though one is missing (see all four in the Twitter post above). Touching one's privates is apparently too much for Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
After a sleep night of meat sweats pre-coffee lewk captured by @damon_baker
Meanwhile, Tumblr's crackdown on such content went into effect today.
The company posted a note clarifying its new policy:
A couple of weeks ago we announced an update to our Community Guidelines regarding adult content, and we've received a lot of questions and feedback from you. First and foremost, we are sorry that this has not been an easy transition and we know we can do a better job of explaining what we're doing. We knew this wasn't going to be an easy task and we appreciate your patience as we work through the challenges and limitations of correctly flagging tens of billions of GIFs, videos, and photos.
Today, December 17th, our policy begins to take effect. This means that we will start hiding – not deleting – posts that contain GIFs, videos, and photos from public view that are in violation of our policy. Again, this is a complex problem, and over the coming weeks we will gradually, and carefully, flag more adult content. (Yes, we will still make mistakes, but hopefully fewer and fewer.)
More importantly, we want to clarify the things that you, as a community, have asked about the most.
Tumblr will always be a place to explore your identity. Tumblr has always been home to marginalized communities and always will be. We fully recognize Tumblr's special obligation to these communities and are committed to ensuring that our new policy on adult content does not silence the vital conversations that take place here every day. LGBTQ+ conversations, exploration of sexuality and gender, efforts to document the lives and challenges of those in the sex worker industry, and posts with pictures, videos, and GIFs of gender-confirmation surgery are all examples of content that is not only permitted on Tumblr but actively encouraged.
We also want to reiterate some important information from our Support post:
Your content will not be deleted. If your post(s) are flagged under the new policy, they will be hidden from public view and will only be visible to you. You can appeal these flags if you feel your content was erroneously marked as adult content. Upcoming feature changes will also make appeals more manageable for those of you with multiple flagged posts. Your blog won't be deleted if you've posted adult content in the past, and there is nothing you need to do if you have interacted with adult content up until now–it will just be flagged and not publicly viewable. Don't forget too that you can download your content. It's yours after all, and we don't take that lightly.
Do you plan on deleting your Tumblr account?