Instagram and the 'War on Porn': An XBIZ Explainer (XBIZ)

Read the full article by Gustavo Turner at XBIZ.com 

LOS ANGELES — For the past six weeks, XBIZ has been conducting an extensive investigation into the deletion of an unusually large number of Instagram accounts of adult performers since the beginning of this year.

Many of the victims, frustrated by what they see as a lack of transparency in the Instagram moderation process and the notoriously unresponsive customer service practices of the photo-sharing platform (and of its parent company, Facebook, and of fellow social media giant Twitter), suspected that the deletions were part of the ongoing “War on Porn” waged by anti-sex, religiously motivated lobbies.

Complicating the situation, in late November 2018, a new Twitter user account was created exclusively to target adult performers, harass and mock them, and to flaunt its own impunity.

That account, operating behind the persona of someone named “Omid,” bragged about having the ability to “take down” the Instagram accounts of adult performers and, starting around Christmas 2018, ramped up its activity, and that of a backup account, posting snapshots of Instagram accounts they had reported, and were deleted, at a rate of more than two per day.

As of this writing (May 28, 2019) both “Omid” accounts continue operating with total impunity. The number of victims of the campaign in the adult community, documented by XBIZ for our coverage, is almost 300 performers and companies, which collectively lost the ability to communicate with several millions of their followers.