Australian comedian and Instagram queen Celeste Barber has taken aim at Instagram for having alleged double standards.
The social media site flagged one of her trademark celebrity recreation photos as ‘violating community standards’, while the original model’s shot remained unreported, despite the latter showing more skin.
The post in question featured an editorial image by catwalk star Candice Swanepoel alongside a snap of Barber posing in an almost-identical fashion.
Both women were showing skin as they sat topless – except for a strategically-placed shirt – while covering their right breast with their hand. One point of difference was the fact that in Celeste’s recreation, she’s actually wearing nude underwear while the model is without any.
Despite this, according to several of Barber’s 7.4 million followers, when trying to share the body-positive post they received a message from Instagram claiming the side-by-side image ‘goes against our community guidelines on nudity or sexual activity’.
Calling out the hypocrisy of Instagram for labelling her image as a violation of community standards while leaving Swanepoel’s original photograph unreported – Barber posted to her Instagram story: “Hey Instagram, sort out your body-shaming standards, guys. It’s 2020. Catch up.”
While the post is once again visible on Barber’s page, the sassy star couldn’t help but take another jab at Instagram – this time uploading a recreation of another topless photo – this time of another Victoria Secret model Bella Hadid.
According to the Herald Sun, Instagram’s local head of public policy Philip Chua said Instagram has apologised to Barber.
“This shouldn’t be happening and we are committed to addressing any inequity on our platforms,” Mr Chua said. “We expect to update our breast covering policies very soon, to make sure all body types are treated fairly.”
It’s not the first time that Instagram’s vague community standard policies have been come under fire.
Black, plus-sized model Nyome Nicholas-Williams recently blasted the platform for failing to adhere to their pledge to review what constitutes as an image that violates standards, saying she believes the double standards in regards to what is deemed appropriate has ‘gotten worse’.
“We can see nothing about that pledge has come to fruition…if anything it has gotten worse,” she said in August after her posts were restricted, which resulted fans starting the #IWantToSeeNyome hashtag. The social media moment highlighted the constant censorship and erasure that thin, white models did not have to deal with.
“This is only the beginning, Instagram has a lot to answer for,” Nicholas-Williams added.
