Hmmm… so Instagram deleted the #Curvy, #ThickGirls, #BBW (Big Beautiful Woman) hashtags recently.
The popular image sharing social media site did it as a part of a campaign to eliminate pornography-related hashtags on the site.
““Please note that the block has nothing to do with the term “curvy” itself,” Instagram told Yahoo Style. “We block (i.e. make unsearchable) certain hashtags when they are consistently being used to share images and videos that violate our Community Guidelines. In this case, #curvy was being used to share content that violates our guidelines around nudity.”
Well…whoa! That just seems off and sort of knee-jerk and a little excessive.
As a parenting and pregnancy blogger, recently I was upset that Google AdSense flagged a blog post I did celebrating the nude pregnant body as violating its terms of service even though the post was more about the artistic and beauty of moms-to-be and the post was editorialized to de-emphasize the shame that historically has been thrust upon the body of a woman incubating new life.
Therefore, I certainly can relate when a computer algorithm has the unintended consequence of banning harmless and useful content while trying to also eliminate harmful ones.
Anyway, I think Meghan Tonjes does an excellent job tackling what’s wrong with the move. (I checked just now and I see it’s back, so I guess all the outrage worked)
But check out Tonjes’ video anyway because she rocks and she gets it!
Jay Jay Ghatt is also editor at Techyaya.com, founder of the JayJayGhatt.com and JayJayGhatt.com where she teaches online creators how to navigate digital entrepreneurship and offers Do-It-For-You Blogging Service. She manages her lifestyle sites BellyitchBlog, Jenebaspeaks and JJBraids.com and is the founder of BlackWomenTech.com 200 Black Women in Tech On Twitter. Her biz podcast 10 Minute Podcast is available on iTunes and Player.fm. Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks. Buy her templates over at her legal and business templates on Etsy shop!