Instagram Removed This Photo Saying It “Breached Guidelines”

Keep Reading ↓

Social Media has become part of our daily lives and a lot of  it gets shared with the world to see.

Often, there can be photos that some people find disturbing or inappropriate and Social media users can simply “report” a photo for being graphic in nature, violent, or a scam or spam.

I can fully understand people reporting nudity, graphic violence or sexuality, however I cannot get to grips with why someone who report a photo of a pregnant woman, breastfeeding mom, or a child with special needs.

Which leads us to twelve-year-old Harry Beswick who was born with Goldenhar syndrome, a rare congenital defect characterized by incomplete development of the ear, nose, soft palate, lip, and mandible.

Harry does not have an eye, eye socket, nostril and ear from one side of his face. He has had 10 operations, including two procedures to restructure his skull and build an eye socket.

Harry’s mother, Charlie Beswick posted a photo of Harry without his prosthetic eye on Instagram. However, the post was removed for “breaching guidelines”. It seems that people have reported the photo to Instagram, and it was removed from her feed.

Beswick runs a parenting blog in the U.K. and began documenting life with her son’s disability on social media six months ago.

Someone is reporting my son’s face & #Instagramagree saying it doesn’t meet their guidelines before removing it. RT to support me in this! pic.twitter.com/XxOvthBT5O

— Charlie Beswick (@ouralteredlife) September 12, 2017

She said thay it is the second time a photo has been removed and both images were of Harry without his prosthetic eye, showing his eye socket.

“I appreciate that he looks different and people might not want to look at it, but that’s not Instagram’s decision,” she said.

“For Instagram to decide Harry’s face isn’t suitable is disgusting. It does feel like discrimination to me. It’s my son’s face and I’m very proud to be showing him off.”

Beswick then took to Twitter to share her disgust.

“Someone is reporting my son’s face & #Instagram agree saying it doesn’t meet their guidelines before removing it. RT to support me in this!” she tweeted.

Her tweet received more than 112,000 retweets and 66,000 likes.

Beswick said that despite sometimes getting “horrific comments” from internet haters, overall the response from her followers has been “really positive”.

Instagram later restored the image and Beswick added a note to the original post: “(Note to the person who reported the last image of my son like this. It’s his FACE. If you’re offended then scroll past. Shame on you!”

In response to the story, Instagram has since apologized to the Mom.

“We mistakenly removed the photo, but quickly restored it as soon as the mistake was brought to our attention,” said an Instagram spokeswoman. “We have apologized to the family.”

In this case, the photo was removed for bullying, likely because the reviewer misinterpreted the lighthearted comment that accompanied it as offensive.

Instagram’s community guidelines ban photos deemed “inappropriate for a diverse audience” including those that depict nudity, celebrate organized crime or terrorism, or glorify self-injury. The app also bans content used to bully or harass anyone because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disability or injury.

Tell us your thoughts on this!