


Artist: Dayana Ruiz
Medium: Mixed Media
Date of censorship: April 2018 – Current
Was there notification of removal? If so, what was the reason given?
Yes, violating their anti-female nipple community guidelines.
Was there the opportunity to appeal? If so, did you appeal and what was the response?
Yes, no response was given after multiple attempts.
What, if any, were the consequences of the removal for you?
Photo taken down and threaten to delete account if continued to post content. This resulted to limiting the amount of content posted on social media in fear of being completely erased.
Comments
With the recent changes in the algorithm, Instagram has targeted women, minorities and
members of the LBGTQ+ community. This brings to question not the algorithm itself but its
creators. Why does it appear to favor content that is acceptable to white males and leaves out
other voices. How come a photo of a topless female in a nonsexual pose is banned, but photos of
women being objectified are ok? Is the patriarchy somehow behind the algorithm?
In protest against this bias, and to challenge the taboo against showing female nipples I created
the Breast Shirt, a t-shirt printed with an image of one’s own breasts. Wearing a Breast Shirt in
public helps to desexualize and normalize the female nipple, and empower all genders to silently
protest against these embedded double standards. According to the community guidelines,
images demonstrating a protest are allowed, however most Breast Shirt posts are taken down
within seconds. The only way they are allowed is by covering the nipple. In response, I repost the
image with the middle finger emoji covering the nipple showing that Instagram would rather see
me flip them off than see my nipple.
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