Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, recently updated its terms of service and community guidelines – and some adult industry community members are very concerned.

Mashable explained: “The issue that’s drawing notice is the platform’s Community Guidelines. They require adherence to Facebook’s Sexual Solicitation rules, which is not a new addition to this version of the terms — but it’s continued inclusion is a big concern for sex workers who reach their audience on the platform.” (emphasis added)

Instagram stated that the new terms are “focused on clarifying how the app uses data to serve personalized ads, what data advertisers receive and licensing and IP usage.” They did not, per their statement, change any of the language around the posting of sexual or suggestive content – but they just said that Insta, which again is a subsidiary of Facebook, will now be utilizing that pre-existing language.

Via the Facebook policy, Instagram, which has long not been a friend of sex workers in any capacity, now says not to post things like: offers to coordinate sexual services, language that describes arousal, emoji and slang understood to mean sex stuff in context, obstructed nudity (e.g. putting a sticker over an image of a woman’s bare breast) and so much more.

In spite of Insta’s assurances that it is not targeting sex workers (and in spite of Facebook’s long dismissal of absolutely anything sex work-related — unless of course it’s done by a mainstream personality), this doubling down on its parent company’s policies is essentially a (somewhat anticipated) slap in the face.

Many community members are concerned and seemed to spend this past weekend sanitizing their pages and feeds in order to stay in front of potential deplatforming. These “changes” (new emphases) went into effect yesterday, on December 20.

Screen grab of Insta posts explaining sanitization and encouraging migration to Twitter done by Sofia Rose (above) and Sunny Megatron (below) are only two of many concerned posts popping up over the weekend. 

The Facebook policy – point “15. Sexual Solicitation” — states (reprinted in full below and available here):

Policy Rationale

As noted in Section 8 of our Community Standards (Sexual Exploitation of Adults), people use Facebook to discuss and draw attention to sexual violence and exploitation. We recognize the importance of and want to allow for this discussion. We draw the line, however, when content facilitates, encourages or coordinates sexual encounters or commercial sexual services between adults such as prostitution or escort services. We do this to avoid facilitating transactions that may involve trafficking, coercion, and non-consensual sexual acts. We also restrict sexually explicit language that may lead to solicitation because some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content and it may impede the ability for people to connect with their friends and the broader community.

The policy continues:

Do not post:

Attempting to coordinate adult commercial sexual services or prostitution activities, such as requesting or offering or asking for rates for escort services and paid sexual fetish or domination services.

Attempted coordination of or recruitment for adult sexual activities, including but not limited to:

— Filmed sexual activities

— Pornographic activities, strip club shows, live sex performances, erotic dances

— Sexual, erotic, or tantric massages

Explicit sexual solicitation by, including but not limited to the following, offering or asking for:

— Sex or sexual partners

— Sex chat or conversations

— Nude photos/videos/imagery

Content that is implicitly or indirectly offering or asking for sexual solicitation and meets both of the following criteria. If both criteria are not met, it is not deemed to be violating. For example, if content is a hand-drawn image depicting sexual activity but does not ask or offer sexual solicitation, it is not violating:

Criteria 1: Offer or Ask 

— Content implicitly or indirectly^* (typically through providing a method of contact) offers or asks for: 

— Nude imagery, or

— Sex or sexual partners, or

— Sex chat conversations

Criteria 2: Suggestive Elements 

— Content makes the aforementioned offer or ask using one of the following sexually suggestive elements: 

— Contextually specific and commonly sexual emojis or emoji strings, or

— Regional sexualized slang, or

— Mentions or depictions of sexual activity (including hand drawn, digital, or real world art) such as: sexual roles, sex positions, fetish scenarios, state of arousal, act of sexual intercourse or activity (sexual penetration or self-pleasuring), or

— Imagery of real individuals with nudity covered by human parts, objects, or digital obstruction, including long shots of fully nude butts

An offer or ask for pornographic material (including, but not limited to, sharing of links to external pornographic websites)

Sexually explicit language that goes into graphic detail beyond mere reference to:

— A state of sexual arousal (wetness or erection) or

— An act of sexual intercourse (sexual penetration, self-pleasuring or exercising fetish scenarios)