A 19-year-old student from Ohio has said Instagram discriminated against her size 24 (UK28) body when it deleted her account.
Samm Newman had posted an image wearing a bra and boyshorts as part of a ‘body positivity’ movement she'd joined, in which women are encouraged to promote positive self image, no matter what their size.
However, it was after she posted the ‘offending’ shot that her account was removed for ‘violating community guidelines’. As we know, violations include nipples (breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding alike. Sigh), nudity and so on. But Samm’s picture actually falls within user guidelines – and Instagram has admitted its wrongdoing.
‘When our team processes reports from other members of the Instagram community, we occasionally make a mistake. In this case, we wrongly removed content and worked to rectify the error as soon as we were notified. We apologise for any inconvenience,’ a spokesperson told NBC4.
The movement uses hashtags such as #pizzasister4lyfe and #plusizebeauty and initially felt like a ‘safe place’ for Samm, where she says she felt she could share anything.
‘Fat is not a bad word,’ she told NBC4. ‘How confident can you be if you keep censoring yourself because people don't want to look at you?’
After being contacted by NBC4, Instagram reinstated the account.
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.