Here is the video that was posted on Collecteurs’ Instagram account on March 20, 2020, which was removed by the platform on March 21st, 2020.
The removal came without any explanations as to why the video was removed. At first we thought maybe they removed it because they concluded that it was “sensitive content” similar to what they do when there is a graphic image. However Instagram only imposes a sensitive content filter, a warning to the users before viewing the post. We have opted to request a review of the video knowing that it did not violate any of Instagram’s community guidelines. We have not heard back from IG in the following 4 weeks.
After the removal, our account was not the same, our posts no longer appeared in any hashtag results, our posts were not being shown to the majority of our followers and our account was no longer suggested to users to follow. On April 19th, we challenged Instagram with a post and called them out on their actions.
We called IG out on not reviewing our video and magically on April 24th, we received a review for our request from “December 31st 1969” (!!!) stating the video we posted indeed violated Instagram’s community guidelines. Again they did not state a reason as to what guideline the video violated as they do with other users. We will let you be the judge.
The timing of the censorship that blacklisted and shadow-banned our account coincided with the announcement of the SUBSTANCE 100 list, which gave us the impression that we were targeted and suppressed. The post surely did not violate Instagram’s guidelines, however even if it did, why doesn’t Instagram just take down the post? Why the punitive, long term shadow banning and punishment?