Medium: Public art

Censored by: Instagram 

What date were you censored?: April 14, 2021

Was there notification of removal and if so was a reason given?:
Instagram dubbed it “hate speech.” Then I made a second post saying that they censored it, and they deleted that too. The justification of censorship for both was “hate speech.”

Was there the opportunity to appeal? If so, did you appeal and what was the response?: 
When I protested the banning, Instagram said they reviewed the post and concluded that it was indeed hate speech, so a human made the decision to confirm their algorithm. Instagram later “un banned” the removed posts. They did this without comment. I think the only reason they changed their mind is that lots of people were starting to repost the work, and were asking questions about why I couldn’t.

What, if any, are the consequences of the removal for you? Please give details.: 
The original image is restored, but I don’t think that anyone can “like” it and I don’t know if it shows up in people’s feeds. It has a chilling effect on other artists and has unleashed a minority of people on my feed to feel that this is indeed hate speech that should be censored. The chilling effect is particularly significant. “White People Can’t Be Trusted with Power” was a reply to the rise of fascism and white supremacy. In particular there was an attempted coup in the US where a significant motivating factor for those that stormed the capitol on January 6 was the audacity of Black people voting. They were very publicly trying to disenfranchise Black people and in effect saying “Black people can’t be trusted with power.” Instagram banning an anti-racist work at this moment says that challenges to white supremacy are not welcome on their platform. My capacity to reach people who wish to engage this work is jeopardized when I think that any time I wish to connect with my audience I will have to fight the censors at IG. And it makes me feel unwelcome on the platform. It would have been bad enough if their algorithms flagged this (which is what I assume happened), and if this was the case then it poses real issues with why IG has created an algorithm that suppresses anti-racist art, but more chillingly is that they had a human review the posts and conclude that this was against their community standards. Finally their actions, and my efforts to get the posts restored, stole hours of my life that could have been used on other things. And the effects I have cited for me are also more widespread as they removed posts of the work when posted by Playwrights Horizons, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and several other people.

Website: www.dreadscott.net

Instagram: @DreadScottArt

Twitter: @DreadScottArt