In 2018, India has taken several historic steps towards equal rights for the LGBT+ community, with the Supreme Court decriminalising consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. And on the eve of Pride month, one Instagram user's clash with the social media platform is the prime example.
A Twitter user by the name of Aashish Mehrotra on Monday took to the microblogging platform stating that an erotic artwork featuring two men had been deleted from his Instagram profile for going against community guidelines. Going by the screenshots shared, the reason for the same is the fact that the post featured nudity or sexual activity.
While Instagram policies do flag nudity, this does not apply to artwork. "We don’t allow nudity on Instagram, with some exceptions, like photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too," reads an excerpt from the company's Community Guidelines blog post.
Not to mention, other sketches, including some rather suggestive or explicit drawings remain present on Mehrotra's handle. As the tweet explained, he had been posting such artwork for over a month now without facing any technical issues. "Today I posted two men embracing and kissing. That's it. It got reported and taken down," he wrote.
Now, erotic artwork might not be everyone's cup of tea, but the seemingly selective censorship has irked many online. Going by a follow-up post shared by the user, Instagram is yet to elaborate on the reasons behind the removal of the post.
