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Instantly Censored: Social Media and The Man

Instantly Censored: Social Media and The Man

Most everyone is familiar with a fig leaf, not because it’s a popular house plant, but because it sits carefully on the genitalia of many ancient sculptures. Possibly the most famous image of censorship, the fig leaf was a later addition to many of these antiques which were rediscovered during the Renaissance and the following centuries, shielding the public from the moral indecency of nudity. Though many art museums and public spaces have moved past this and removed the fig leaf from penis and vagina alike, the issue of censorship in public spaces still remains an active conversation.

We may not be dealing with fig leaves anymore, but we are adjusting to a new form of censorship: pixelation. On Instagram, nude content is self-censored through the inclusion of pixelation over genitalia, intercourse, and female nipples, or the content becomes censored through flagging. The flagging process originates through a community-based reporting system based upon the company’s Community Guidelines.

The Community Guidelines for Instagram is a thin social and legal contract between users and the company in order to establish a code of conduct for both use and content production. These guidelines help protect individuals from hate speech, copyright infringement, and exposure to self-injury content. However, the case for nudity is based around a vague concept of content that is “appropriate for a diverse audience.”

This question of audience is important, as it dictates the acceptability of certain content. There is a dysfunctional role between producer and audience on social media, as audience can have a profound impact on the imagery that they consume and allow on the public forum. An individual artist can produce imagery that represents a specific audience outside of the mainstream, yet the mainstream can dictate the permission for the imagery to be circulated.

Gatekeeping in this systems disproportionately affects artists and sex workers who identify as queer, femme, or both. Additionally, the system does not function purely on human opinion, but has expanded to include an algorithm that actively deletes content that it perceives to violate the community guidelines.

Ethan Barry, an artist based in Vancouver, has become one of many artists to face censorship on the social media platform. Working in illustration and drawing, Barry’s practice explores the intersection between intimacy and sexuality through minimal linework, placing emphasis on the vulnerability of connection.

“If you type in my handle on Instagram, anymore, it doesn’t pop up” said Barry, highlighting the consequences of Instagram’s shadowbanning, a tool used to hide content by specific users from public searches.

Consequently, Barry has not only had to constrict his work to fit within the guidelines, but also his personal and professional interactions.

“I was messaging with another erotic, queer artist, and he asked me to send him photographs to draw. And so, I sent them, and they were nude, and that was within our DMs, not public. And immediately, I got a message saying that these [images] didn’t meet the requirements of the community guidelines, essentially the same message you would get if you posted them publicly.”

Monitoring both public and private spaces crafts an anxiety for producers that limits the scope of content they would like to share. This follows a long history of art spaces censoring the work of queer artists, such as the removal of David Wojnarowicz’ video “A Fire in my Belly” from the National Portrait Gallery in 2010. Public dictations of queer experiences and representations shows a conflict of values between the generic public and the queer public.

“It’s really hard to say that we are the ones that are being restricted and targeted. We are just the group in society that are always pushing against the boundaries. [Instagram’s] fighting back against that now,” added Barry. “We’re lucky that as millennials, we’re the first community to have access to these things and ways to connect, and so, having these things taken away for the first time is extremely alarming”

Removing digital spaces from young people interacting with queer identity for the first time forces a transition back to traditional media sources for representation and communication, leaving behind queer youth in rural areas who lack the same resources as those in urban centers.

“I try to create work that people can personally identify with. It’s not only ‘this is a sexy image.’ It’s also ‘I’ve been in that physical situation. I’ve had an intimate moment like this.’ So, when you take moments like those away, you have less things to relate to,” said Barry.

That is the main challenge presented to queer individuals on social media. Instagram and other platforms were not created with queer people in mind, leading to values and needs that don’t relate to those participating with queer culture. This issue will only continue to neglect those needs for interpersonal connection that many queer individuals lack in daily life outside of queer spaces. We cannot continue to apply fig leaves to nudity and queerness and expect acceptability; it is necessary to craft queer spaces on the internet that fully realize a queer future where visual representation does not need to apologize for its sincerity.

Art by Ethan Barry

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