In its latest move to control “inappropriate” content on Instagram, the favored social media app now will no longer permit users to go looking for the hashtag #curvy. After you enter the term on discover mode, all that seems is a system message stating “sorry, this page isn’t available.”
An Instagram representative told concerned users that the hashtag wasn’t searchable as a result of getting used to “share pictures and videos” that profaned Instagram’s “community guidelines around nudity”. But unlike prohibited terms that relate more to classes of a precise category of video (3X’s), the term curvy goes on the far side than simply a connotation of sex. For many women, the word is employed to celebrate body positivism, and plenty of of the industry’s prime plus-size models embrace the term as the way to market confidence for ladies of all body varieties.
While #curvy has lost its standing, connected terms like #skinny and #thin stay.
This is simply the most recent controversy for the social platform, that has been criticized for censoring women’s nipples which kicked off the #FreeTheNipple movement.
More to come as social media rains fire.
Image Source: Danielle Melnyczenko, Flickr