Earlier this year, AVN.com reported that at least three adult performers had seen their Instagram accounts hacked, resulting in their accounts being temporarily shut down. But according to new reports this week, porn performers’ problems with the social media platform are actually far worse than they appeared.
According to a BBC report, the accounts of more than 1,300 adult performers who rely on Instagram to build followings and raise revenue have simply been deleted by the Facebook-owned photo-sharing site.
The list of approximately 1,300 performers whose accounts were allegedly deleted was compiled by the Adult Performers Actors Guild, a group currently led by AVN Hall of Famer Alana Evans, who told the BBC that none of the deleted accounts violated the platform’s guidelines by showing sexual content or nudity.
"They discriminate against us because they don't like what we do for a living," Evans told the BBC.
In June, Evans’ group held a meeting with representatives of Instagram in June. The negotiations led the company to establish a new system for performers to appeal the deletions of their accounts, according to the BBC. But even after the meeting, Instagram has continued to shut down porn performer accounts without explanation.
The accounts appear to have been deleted in response to complaints from other users. Earlier this year a single internet anti-porn troll, “Omid,” claimed credit for reporting up to 300 adult performer accounts which were subsequently shut down by Instagram.
"The people reporting us don't understand that people's incomes are affected, or they don't care,” Evans told the BBC. “They think that we shouldn't be doing this job or it shouldn't exist."
"I've never posted explicit images on Instagram. But even a picture of me wearing leggings could be extremely provocative to someone, and worthy of being reported," performer Ginger Banks said. "We're letting these businesses determine what is art and what is pornography, and then punish us."
“We have to put rules in place around nudity and sexual solicitation to ensure content is appropriate for everyone, particularly young people,” a spokesperson for Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, said in a statement to the BBC. "We will take action on content reported to us if it breaks these rules.”
Photo by StockSnap / Wikimedia Commons
