Online Censorship Gains Momentum With Instagram's New Policy

Online Censorship Gains Momentum With Instagram's New Policy

CYBERSPACE —  “Reduce, remove, inform” is the name of the game over at Facebook and as of this week, they’ve introduced more policy designed to ensure that the content they recommend to people “is both safe and appropriate for the community,” as per their company newsroom.

At a press conference held at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters, execs announced the beefed up policies, specifically targeting and seeking to quell the spread of “posts that are inappropriate but do not go against Instagram’s Community Guidelines.” 

The company announced that it would no longer recommend “borderline” material to the Instagram community at large. “For example,” they said, “a sexually suggestive post will still appear in Feed if you follow the account that posts it, but this type of content may not appear for the broader community in Explore or hashtag pages.”

What this means of course is that Facebook and its subsidiaries, most notably Instagram, are effectively tightening their grip on the throats of "edgy" content creators, suffocating them into obscurity if they should post anything deemed to fall along a murky “borderline.” 

While it seems reasonable for Facebook to want to censor graphic material, hate speech and fake news, this new policy, which essentially codifies “demoting” content as a tactic the company is willing to engage in, is — simply put — a massive step backwards for freedom of expression in the online world.

As TechCrunch reported, what this new policy means is that “if a post is sexually suggestive, but doesn’t depict a sex act or nudity, it could still get demoted. Similarly, if a meme doesn’t constitute hate speech or harassment, but is considered in bad taste, lewd, violent or hurtful, it could get fewer views.”

Instagram’s product lead for Discovery, Will Ruben, confirmed that the company is “training its content moderators to label borderline content when they’re hunting down policy violations,” with the purpose of subsequently training an algorithm to eventually do the same. 

By throttling accounts’ visibility on the Explore page and hashtag searches, Instagram will effectively render undesirable content near undiscoverable to anyone who isn’t specifically looking for it. 

While Facebook and Instagram have every right to decide what content they recommend to their users, this particular move seems to only feed the growing machine that is online censorship.

The ambiguity surrounding how Instagram determines what is and isn’t appropriate is really at the heart of the matter in this case. We have to question: where will the line be drawn? While most people can agree that we should be seeking to combat the spread of misinformation and violent images, we have to consider that this new policy will likely wind up sexualizing certain types of images and stifling the spread of sexual health and wellness information.

For a company that originally set out to “capture and share the world’s moments,” to now nitpick and only recommend content which passes its self-imposed censors is tragically ironic.  

Related:  

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

FSC: California's Device-Based AV Law Does Not Apply to Adult

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) put out an advisory today explaining that California's new device-based age verification law does not apply to adult websites.

Reena Sky Launches New Paysite

Reena Sky has launched her new official paysite, ILoveReenaSky.com.

NextGen Payment Joins ASACP as Corporate Sponsor

NextGen Payment has signed on as the latest corporate sponsor for the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP).

Lauren Phillips, Derek Kage Cap AEBN's Top Stars for 3rd Quarter of 2025

AEBN has revealed its most popular performers in straight and gay theaters for the third quarter of 2025.

XBIZ 2026 Conference to Debut All-New Company Lounges, Community Track

The event website for XBIZ 2026 is now live, unveiling details for North America’s largest adult industry conference, including two all-new show features: Company Lounges and a Community Track.

Mymember.site Integrates VR Functionality

Mymember.site has added virtual reality playback capability to its website management platform.

Texas Patti to Launch Fetish Platform 'EmpireDom'

Performer and content creator Texas Patti is launching a new platform for doms and fetish creators, EmpireDom.com.

Ohio AG Threatens Action Against 'Major' Adult Sites Over AV Law

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today that his office is sending "notice of violation" letters to 19 adult websites for failure to comply with the state's recently enacted age verification law.

Chaturbate Announces 2025 Music Contest Winners

Chaturbate has revealed the winners of its 2025 music competition.

2026 XBIZ Exec Awards Pre-Noms Open With Debut of New 'Impact' Honors

XBIZ is pleased to announce that the pre-nomination period for the 2026 XBIZ Exec Awards, the adult industry’s premier career honor, begins today and runs through Oct. 14.

Show More