Image courtesy of Instagram @bloatedandalone4evr1993 and @arvidabystrom
Artists Arvida Byström and Molly Soda have published a collaborative book called “Pics or It Didn’t Happen: Images Banned from Instagram”. The book, which they have been working on for more than a year, takes a closer look at Instagram’s Community Guidelines and explores the uproar from social media’s creatives over the platform’s strict censorship.
The conversation about censorship on Instagram erupted in 2013, following Petra Collin’s essay Censorship and The Female Body, which she wrote after Instagram removed one of her posts without her permission. IG’s user guidelines prohibit posting “violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful, pornographic, or sexually suggestive photos,” however many of the photographs featured in the book are none of these things. With a foreword by esteemed American writer and author of “I Love Dick,” Chris Kraus, the book generates a much-needed discussion about censorship, restraints on social media, conceptions of the female body and artistic freedom.
Image courtesy of Instagram @isaackariuki.jpg and @arvidabystrom
Image courtesy of @rupikaur_
Image courtesy of @rachel_roze_cuccia
You can buy the book here.