Censorship on Instagram Icon. Though Instagram can many times be the perfect place to share some controversial issues (right now, for example lots of pics of the Baltimore riots are being uploaded and shared on it, reaching more and more people than they would if they were only broadcast through traditional media) and make people more aware of them, there are some things that Mark Zuckerberg’s photo-sharing network will not tolerate.
Censorship on Instagram Icon
Instagram has a very strict policy regarding sex or nudism
No photographs of nude people are allowed, so searches for sexual or erotic terms will not show any results. However, users dodged this censorship thanks to one of Instagram’s new features – emoticon search. Since it was possible to look up single emoticons and pics tagged with them, some people started getting a little too sexy on the site, and, in order to avoid censorship, started labelling their pictures – with the eggplant emoticon.
However, Zuckerberg’s policies are as strict as ever, so, once Instagram became aware of the users using this emoticon to look for things they shouldn’t be looking for. Apart from deleting explicit photos Instagram also censors searches for conflictive words or tags. Just in case something has dodged controls. That is why the eggplant was censored – because, when you take something from people, they will try and find new ways of getting the same.
In response to this action a tag has emerged – #FreeTheEggplant, which vindicates the vegetable and its uses. This only confirms the fact that in Internet things work similarly to real life. Thus, when you forbid or censor something, people who had never heard about that will start showing interest in it. They will look for it, to see why it has been forbidden, and, finally. More people will see it than it could be imagined, showing that censorship is, sometimes, useless.
This is a iigers.com article.