Instagram updates user guidelines with more details, stricter tone
Instagram is taking a more hard-line approach with what it will and will not allow on the photo-sharing app.
The company has updated its community guidelines, releasing a longer set of rules with more details and a stronger tone.
Here’s the short of it:
“We want Instagram to continue to be an authentic and safe place for inspiration and expression. Help us foster this community. Post only your own photos and videos and always follow the law. Respect everyone on Instagram, don’t spam people or post nudity.”
Instagram has faced numerous complaints about its decency guidelines in the past, particularly for its longstanding decision to not allow photos of topless women. That sparked a campaign popularized by celebrities including Chelsea Handler and Miley Cyrus to “free the nipple.”
Instagram went into detail on the issue of nudity in its new guidelines, saying:
“We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don’t allow nudity on Instagram. This includes photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples.”
The company noted that photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding are allowed. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK as well.
The Facebook-owned company also reminds users to share only photos or videos that they took themselves or have the right to share.
Instagram lately has become a popular place for celebs -- including Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams and Drake -- to show off their Apple Watches, days before the wearable hits store shelves for us common folk. The latest influencer who has been bestowed with an Apple Watch -- and a specially made blinged-out version at that -- is famed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
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