Social networking sites are bound to make mistakes regarding its users at some point. Photo-sharing app Instagram is no exception. Essentially, Instagram is meant as a place to share photos you’ve taken, no matter what they are—short of naked pictures and other things it might find objectionable. But what's objectionable?
Nineteen-year-old Ohio college student, Samm Newman, found out a picture of herself in a bikini top is, even though there are thousands of girls in bikini pictures all across Instagram. Newman claimed the company deactivated her account when she uploaded a photo of herself in a bra and boy shorts. Given the vast amount of bikini selfies people post, a bra and boy shorts does not constitute a naked photo. During an interview with NBC 4, Newman said she dealt with bullying regarding her weight during her youth that was so bad she ended up self-harming. Later on, Newman dealt with her body issues and was positive about it. So much so, she had no problem posting the photos of herself that showed off her body.
When Instagram was asked about the deactivation of Newman’s account, they said, "She violated their community guidelines." While they warn against sharing photos that show nudity or mature content, Newman said there is a double standard.
After various people spoke up on behalf of Newman and blamed Instagram for discrimination against full-figured women, they backtracked, saying: “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 inconvenience.”
This isn’t the first time a Facebook-owned company has run into trouble regarding discrimination. Not long ago, Facebook itself banned women from sharing pictures of their bodies after a having a mastectomy.
Now that Newman’s Instagram is fully up and running once again, she told NBC 4 “Fat is not a bad word.”
Good for you girl.
[via Jezebel]
