Don't Delete Art's Day of Action
Thursday, June 15, 2023

The DDA Day of Action was orchestrated as an extension of DDA's Manifesto Campaign. The DDA Manifesto is rallying together the international arts community to advocate for the protection of artistic expression online. Its signatories demand that social media giants incorporate artistic perspectives into their content moderation policies and their enforcement processes. Social media platforms are stifling artistic expression, negatively impacting artists who depend on them to exhibit and market their work.

Online, DDA debuted its digital sticker, which artists can use in their social media posts when they need to censor their work in order to comply with various content moderation policies. While many artists already self-censor their work so that it can be shared on social media, the DDA digital sticker allows them to do so while also calling out the need for policies to change so that they are more inclusive of artistic context. You can download the DDA digital sticker here, or find it through Instagram by following these instructions.

In New York City, the Day of Action consisted of DDA members taking to the streets of New York City in an effort to encourage key cultural institutions and their patrons to sign the DDA Manifesto.  We distributed hundreds of informational fliers and DDA stickers outside of Meta, The Whitney, Parsons the New School, the Magnum Foundation, the New Museum, and the International Center of Photography. The day was bookended by pamphleting outside of Meta's New York City headquarters, where at the end of the day, we attempted to deliver a box with the 2,170+ signatures we had obtained to date, documentation of artworks that had been suppressed on social media, and other materials that document DDA's work and activities. Meta instructed their security to decline receipt of the box, but we will continue our work in continuing to build global support for the campaign, and put pressure on companies like Meta to change their practices. 

The Day of Action was covered by Hyperallergic, Artnet News, The Art Newspaper, and Mena FN. 

Want to support the ongoing Manifesto campaign? Sign it, share it, and use the DDA Digital Sticker in your social media posts. Together we can advocate for the protection of artistic expression online.