#BoobGate
Instagram vs Fiona’s Mum
By Fiona
Instagram vs Fiona’s Mum
By Fiona
One wholesome Easter Sunday, my mother uploaded this photo of a traditional Easter Simnel cake to her Instagram account. t and it was delicious.
Each marzipan blob represents the disciples, with the one in the middle being Judas. Now this Judas blob is important, because before we knew it...
... My Mum’s entire Instagram account was disabled.
Obviously there had been a mistake. So, remaining calm, my Mum emails Instagram to let them know.
They reply a few days later...
Obviously there had been a mistake. So, remaining calm, my Mum emails Instagram to let them know.
They reply a few days later...
The marzipan blob was NOT a nipple. It was JUDAS.
I took to Twitter to vent.
I took to Twitter to vent.
Still furious, I go to a meeting, leaving my phone behind. I get back to discover #BoobGate is now a global phenomenon.
It’s being talked about everywhere from America to Russia to Panama. A site in Bosnia has picked it up. I google where Bosnia is.
My phone is ringing off the hook with requests for radio interviews. People are making YouTube videos debating Instagram’s nipple censorship with my Mother’s Simnel photo at the heart.
Then it becomes a global news segment. DR. PHIL talks about it live on air.
I’m being asked to talk about my views on #FreeTheNipple and Instagram porn.
So I go to the PR team at work for advice. “Stick to the facts”, they say. “No you don’t think it looks like a boob. You just want your Mum’s account back”.
On I go amidst the madness with still with no word from Instagram themselves. UNTIL...
My mother’s Instagram account is BACK. The mass media pressure forced Instagram to overturn their decision. I go over to my parents’ house where we share the last celebratory slice of the now infamous simnel cake (after debating whether or not we should offer it up to Christies for auction).
Almost four years on I still get DMs about this. It was recently immortalised in an exhibition about the digital revolution at The Musée de la Civilisation, Québec.
I’ve had people who have had their accounts disabled write and ask how I did it. In all honesty, I did very little. But I can see with hindsight that this story was social media gold.
It was David and Goliath. Sweet, English Mum has wholesome, religious cake BANNED by tech giant claiming EXPLICIT CONTENT. It’s censorship gone wrong! I made a ven diagram.
Almost four years on I still get DMs about this. It was recently immortalised in an exhibition about the digital revolution at The Musée de la Civilisation, Québec.
I’ve had people who have had their accounts disabled write and ask how I did it. In all honesty, I did very little. But I can see with hindsight that this story was social media gold.
It was David and Goliath. Sweet, English Mum has wholesome, religious cake BANNED by tech giant claiming EXPLICIT CONTENT. It’s censorship gone wrong! I made a ven diagram.
Will this hastily written angry tweet be my most widely shared piece of work ever? Sadly, it probably will be.