implemented a new policy against “inappropriate” content—though the Facebook-owned photo-sharing site only vaguely defined what it meant by “inappropriate.”

As a result, the policy which “shadowbans” the supposedly “inappropriate” posts has disproportionately affected women, often costing them views, followers, and ultimately, cash, according to a HuffPost report. 

To combat the shadowbans, according to the HuffPost report, many women in professions such as pole dancing that have been hardest hit by the policy have taken to identifying themselves as men in their Instagram profiles, finding that the one simple, albeit false, adjustment helps to skirt the censorship.

Shadowbanning is the practice of demoting posts on a social media site in order to reduce, often drastically, the visibility of those posts. The demotion is generally accomplished using the site’s automatic algorithm. According to some users, the Instagram algorithm has been more likely to shadowban posts by women as “inappropriate,” compared to posts by users who identify in their profiles as male.

According to one pole dancer who relies on Instagram to promote her business, her sinking engagement levels were back to normal just three days after she changed her profile ID to “male.”

“Many of us within the pole dancing community rely on Instagram to thrive,” she said. “We use [Instagram] to share training videos, connect with new people and, for lots of us, to grow our businesses. It’s ridiculous that we have to resort to trying this kind of thing.”

The policy affects posts that do not violate Instagram’s “community guidelines” but could nonetheless be deemed “sexually suggestive.” But when a HuffPost reporter asked the company to define what would be considered “sexually suggestive,” no answer was forthcoming.

A spokesperson for Facebook, however, denied that the Instagram algorithm takes gender into account.

“Gender information from profiles has no impact on content we filter from hashtags or the Explore page,” the spokesperson told HuffPost. “We want to make sure the content we recommend to people on Instagram is safe and appropriate for everyone. Ensuring women feel heard is an essential part of that effort.”

Photo By Today Testing / Wikimedia Commons 

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