Instagram has always asked users to be nice and respectful of each other, but now the social network is taking a harder line on a handful of issues.
And it’s updated its community guidelines to reflect this.
“In the old guidelines, we would say ‘don’t be mean’,” Nicky Jackson Colaco, director of public policy for Instagram, told the Wall Street Journal. “Now we’re actively saying you can’t harass people. The language is just stronger.”
Here’s Instagram’s new, more forceful rebuke of harassment:
We want to foster a positive, diverse community. We remove content that contains credible threats or hate speech, content that targets private individuals to degrade or shame them, personal information meant to blackmail or harass someone, and repeated unwanted messages. We do generally allow stronger conversation around people who are featured in the news or have a large public audience due to their profession or chosen activities.
It’s never OK to encourage violence or attack anyone based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disabilities, or diseases. When hate speech is being shared to challenge it or to raise awareness, we may allow it. In those instances, we ask that you express your intent clearly.
Serious threats of harm to public and personal safety aren’t allowed. This includes specific threats of physical harm as well as threats of theft, vandalism, and other financial harm. We carefully review reports of threats and consider many things when determining whether a threat is credible.
Nudity has received some focus as well.
Instagram has always banned nudity and has been quick to remove posts that violate its policy – but now the lines are more clear. Instagram, unsurprisingly, takes the same stance on nudity as its parent company Facebook. Boobs are ok if a baby is attached, and that’s it.
“We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don’t allow nudity on Instagram. This includes photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding are allowed. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too,” says Instagram’s new terms.
Sorry, Chelsea Handler. Sorry Rihanna. You’ll have to take your boobs to Twitter.
Image via Instagram
