Censorship on Social Media: Silencing Women's Expression

Photograph and words by the endlessly talented Chantal Convertini. Find her at @paeulini on Instagram.

“First. I know. Don’t get mad about an app. I got it. Let me just say: it’s not just an app anymore. This 1 billion user social media platform has become more than that. It has become a currency itself; this year it made an estimated 10 billion dollars just from ads. It’s the largest online discourse ever instructed. 

I’m talking about Instagram. And injustice spreads there as fast as it does in real life. As much as I wish I was not dependent on this platform, I can’t hide the fact that I feel a little bit at Instagram’s mercy. I am a free artist who does art for sustaining myself and if bills or rent didn't exist I wouldn’t even want anything else from it other than to just do it for pleasure. 

I would probably have already quit this game, purely because of Instagram’s superficiality and its overloading of ads, which has sadly replaced what was once a place of inspiration. But as someone trying to get her business running, I can’t afford to go. At least this is the case so long as the other people I’m working with believe it too. And here we have the vicious cycle.

I discovered Instagram in November 2015, which felt a little late to the party. Joining the gram I initially wanted to advertise my newly opened Facebook photography page (which is ironically the same thing now). My posts very quickly got much more engagement than on Facebook and I was thrilled. I slowly stopped advertising my Facebook page and instead invested my energy into posting more work on my newly created Instagram page named @paeulini. I quickly found my way into analogue photography and Instagram connected me to my till-today-heroes shooting film. First and foremost with Ryan Muirhead, an American photographer and artist who I believe is one of the most authentic people I have the pleasure of „following“. Ryan’s honesty about himself, how he sees the world and especially about his fight against censorship of the female body, has made a huge impression on me to say the least. Ryan has probably had the biggest influence on my work, not so much with regards to the content of my images, but more to do with how I want to show what kind of artist I am on and off this platform: brutally open and honest.

Joining Instagram had two major consequences. The first, the wonderful aspect of this app, the one that for me makes it so incredibly hard to leave (aside from business reasons) is the community it allowed me to be a part of. My work and my words that show my innermost feelings to everyone were received with such heart-warming, positive feedback. I had an overwhelming amount of encouragement that my work was indeed worth something and that I (against some of my professor’s opinions) was creating art and not just snapping some shots as they implied between the lines. 

The second consequence is the dark side of the app, the silent part, the one that only shows itself after some time. It’s hard to spot because it’s so well hidden behind the shiny and obvious advantages of the platform. You get sucked in very slowly and before you know it you are already standing deep in quicksand. The first big change that led to quite some misery on Instagram was the company’s announcement of its infamous algorithm in June 2016. Seemingly introduced to help users view more content that is important to them, this new algorithm was actually a way for Instagram to earn billions of dollars. With the power to decide what, when and how content is shown, Instagram was now able to put adverts in-between users’ posts and were being paid substantial amounts for it. The chronological timeline where you would see every post from the people you followed in order of the actual time they posted became history. Since then private users have been bombarded with surreptitious advertising. All at the expense of the user’s experience of the app – without whom Instagram would not be able to make any of this money. This alone made me think that it’s ruining the beauty of the app completely. But along with the changes that happened in Spring this year, it was more like a punch in the face.

With time and experience I got closer to the essence of what I wanted to achieve with my photography. The voices telling me that I only show skin for attention or that I only do self-portraits because I’m a narcissist were quickly silenced by the overwhelming support and validation of thousands of my followers. I knew better, and so did they. The female body in all its beauty has been sold, used too much and too carelessly. I found hope and inspiration in my community of artists that all women, along with myself, are more than that. I found a kind of self-determination and self-confidence that had nothing to do with physical appearance or looks.

And then there came the new Instagram guidelines. Facing an explosive growth of users and along with it the fear that Instagram would become a new cheap pornography platform, Instagram tightened their rules on nudity on the platform. What in theory sounded logical, was actually enforced in such a corrupt way that I seriously doubt the so called ‘positive’ intention behind the new guidelines. The discussion around censorship of the female nipple is old news. The original Instagram rules which included restrictions on sharing content that showed genitals, violence or sex appeared to me logical and fair (that is aside from the sexist censorship of female nipples). In the beginning these rules didn’t interfere at all with my photography but I was still ready to defend my fellow artists who were being restricted by it. That all changed when Instagram suddenly decided to flag my work, along with others that I adored, as sexually suggestive, even though my work never really showed nipples or close up butts uncensored anyways. On that note, I absolutely stand by the view that these body parts do not make an image suggestive. I’m downright convinced that the sexualisation of the body in society is the problem and not the actual body itself. Furthermore my work has never been erotic and I know lots of my supporters would agree that I do a good job of ensuring that my work remains this way. I’m an artist who likes to experiment with the traditional ways a female body has been represented throughout history - representations which I believe have been abused so many times for the way they objectify women. I try to do something different with these perspectives. I’m owning my body and opening a discussion about the images I shoot with other women: I tell their story as one of them: a woman.

“The sexualisation and the censorship of bodies, especially those of women is a reflection of how our world is working and it’s a sad truth. But, it's a man’s world.”

This I believe is the epitome of my work, and now that Instagram judges every image with a hint of skin as sexually suggestive, it changed from being one of my biggest achievements to my personal enemy.

Worse still, I didn’t find this all out through official Instagram communication. The new guidelines were never officially communicated, leaving their users in the dark, wondering why their work isn’t being seen. 

Instagram tweeted in January 2019 that the widely discussed shadowban is only a myth. But the reality is that it is the only explanation that fits for all the evidences that surfaced if you’re a regular user of the app. The visibility of the posts, that is already cut down to approximately 10% of your followers, is cut down even more in a shadowban. If too much skin is displayed on your post it most likely won’t show up in the hashtag-search or on the Instagram explore page and the post is so far down the home timeline that even less than 10% of your followers will see it. It means that you can still post an image with some nudity for artistic purpose, but they are so hard to find that you can be sure almost no-one sees it. Another bit of evidence to prove the shadowban exists is that you have to type in the entire name of an account that is shadowbanned and click on ‘show results’ to even find them in the search bar. This shadowban is a very subtle, yet ominous form of censorship that allows Instagram to dictate what you see as a user, based on what they think is appropriate. This isn’t just about the sexualisation of bodies, which is sadly a reflection of morals that had been like that for decades, it’s about how the Instagram shadowban and the power of their strict new algorithm can easily and so effectively silence expression of voices, artistic or not, that need to be heard. 

To upload a post it takes much longer than before. Most certainly the post is being scanned by a computer first for any hints of nudity. A computer now decides what is art and what is not. Yes it has come to this. And why would I let an app decide what I view as art? Why would I ever limit myself because of a computer?

In the structure of dependence I have on this app I did not learn how to walk by myself. I have no connections to the art world, no famous parents and no knowledge of ‘rules’ in the official art world. I never even thought I would reach a point where this is something I would need to consider.

 And here I come to the biggest and most severe consequence that I feel today, all because I took an online gallery on an app on my phone way too seriously, poured my heart into it and allowed my entire world of images to be judged and dictated through the validation of others. It strikes hard. If this is the main form through which I show my work then my art will always be shaped by rules that I didn’t make myself. Far worse I would show my art within a world that limits the very process of creating it. They mess with my head (and the heads of millions of others). Nudity is only okay when they say it’s okay. My work would stay within the same conditions given and all this would definitely be the end of it. I don’t know where this is leading me exactly, but most definitely in a direction away from this app. But I won’t leave without making some noise about it.

How can it be that so many accounts have been disabled, censored and shadowbanned for the tiniest bit of skin, but Heidi Klum can still show her nipples? Why can the playboy account post the most erotic images of nude girls, including close ups of their butts, uncensored? Why should I believe that Instagram wants to create a ‘safe space’ for all of us while Kylie Jenner can show off her entirely undressed body with the most minimal censorship on her nipple? Why is it still possible that I have topless selfies of men on my Instagram explore page when a naked back of a woman is sexually suggestive? Why is it still possible for a man to private message me an image of his genitals if everything is so carefully scanned and controlled?

I don’t follow any pages like playboy or any shiny blogger or influencer. All I ever wanted is to share my work and be a part of the same artistic community that my favourite photographers are. But then a few weeks ago, whilst I was deep in my protest about the shadowban, I saw an image of a naked butt on my timeline. It belonged to Cara Delevigne. The photo is part of a three part post where the model poses completely naked for Marie Claire. The photo of her butt has over 1.5 million likes on Instagram. I’m angry. On my page a very similar photo, showing even way less butt was deleted and I shared the comparison in my story. Now comes the really messed up part: When I reshared Cara’s post in my story Instagram deleted it and informed me that I violate their community guidelines. I then report the image of Cara’s original post and Instagram states: ‘We’ve reviewed Cara Delevigne’s photo and found that it doesn’t go against our Community Guidelines.’

“Expression, art and the capability of expressing ones emotions would be something that would finally add to a more wholesome picture”

Thank you for the info Instagram, rules don’t seem to be valid for celebrities then.

And here it starts to get even harder. If everything I mentioned before lacks transparency on Instagram’s side, from now on my speculations leave a safe ground. But because the whole world spins around the same story over and over again lets me assume that it’s the same game here. I talk about the most successful invention of mankind: money.

That 13 year old teenager with his iPhone, which those Community Guidelines want to protect, knows very well how to use Pornhub. On every page where we try to even rewatch our favourite Disney movies there appear ads of games that glorify sexual violence. The internet is full of representation of women or bodies in general that are being sold and sexualised. It is a pity that with all this amazing technology it’s still not possible to create better restrictions that don’t quieten the expression of art, especially female visual artists. 

But what the advertiser doesn’t want, he doesn’t want, and it’s them who pay Instagram’s bills. Instagram sets its rules according to it’s advertisers and then the manipulated and blinded opinion of the masses who the advertisers try to sell their stuff to. In the end Instagram makes it all worse with believing they know what we want to hear and what we want to see. But how can that be true if we don’t know yet what that is?

In my eyes the artistic freedom to express oneself with ones body would be a positive change. A voice against the abuse. Young women would have real role models and find a more authentic connection to themselves compared to what is being sold to us. Expression, art and the capability of expressing ones emotions would be something that would finally add to a more wholesome picture. It would bring back a piece of normality and equality in our lives. Or since when is a picture of a nine year old boy playing in the water anything other than innocent?

Again society’s voice comes through and it is still censoring the victim instead of the perpetrator. I see myself forced to see the truth through Instagram’s eyes instead of through my own. The sexualisation and the censorship of bodies, especially those of women is a reflection of how our world is working and it’s a sad truth. But, it's a man’s world.

The battle on Instagram is lost. I will no longer make this platform the main showcase of my work. Instagram will shovel it's own grave sooner or later. But my art will be art, so long as I do not claim the opposite.”

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To see more of Chantal’s beautiful photography and support her work you can find her on paeulini.com.