Instagram Is About to Get a Lot More Boring
By: Emma Austin
Tags: Women, Social Media, Writing, Sexuality, Sex

Instagram is about to implement changes to its community guidelines. And depending on the type of content you create or like to consume, they could completely change the way you use the platform.

When I started writing about sex, I made a conscious decision to do it using explicit language.

I didn’t see any reason to hold back and make my content more family-friendly. I was writing specifically for adults and I wanted my words to reflect that. And when I published articles about porn, it just seemed silly not to do it with X-rated writing.

I tried to write things that were a little more proper. I started off using more clinical and sanitized language. Some of my earlier articles used words like “penis” instead of “cock.” It got the message across, but it felt so flat and dull.

I wanted to write the way I actually spoke. When I finally gave myself permission to do that, the words felt more alive. There was an energy, an excitement when I was vulgar and casual that I couldn’t achieve when I tried to keep things clean.

I also went dirty because that’s the kind of content I’m drawn to.

I love crude jokes, naughty dialogue, and women who are unapologetically horny. My Twitter feed is full of tits and ass. I follow people on Instagram just so I can see when they post lewds.

I personally think most things are better when you throw some sex in the mix. So, I write for people who feel the same way.

Doing it was liberating, but it also meant I’d have a few obstacles.

I knew some people wouldn’t take me seriously because I was the girl with the filthy mouth.

I also knew others would be drawn to the dirty words but wouldn’t pay attention to whether my writing was any good.

And more importantly, I had to find the right place to put all my work.

Before I started blogging, I wrote erotica. Amazon was the natural home for my stories and novellas, but its terms of service were less than hospitable to them. I had to be very careful with what I uploaded to the site, especially given some of the kinks I have.

Medium made more sense for me, since it seems to have a decent respect for sex and sexually explicit written content.

But anyone who wants to try making a living off their writing knows that very few people can just stick their words online and let them speak for themselves. You also have to find ways to promote yourself, in part by building a presence on social media.

Plus, you’ll probably have the urge to express yourself in other ways. You’ll want to start a podcast, give Twitch streaming a try, create YouTube videos, share some photos, or find a way to broadcast those stray thoughts that are too short to post on your blog.

In my case, that meant posting to Twitter, starting a podcast, and launching a Patreon page. I also got slightly involved on Facebook before realizing it just wasn’t the right place for me.

And until recently, Instagram was a big part of that. But now that they’re rolling out changes to their policies, I’ll need to find a new home for everything I was doing there — and so will anyone whose content is related to sex.

Why I Fell in Love With Instagram

Instagram was the first social media platform I genuinely enjoyed using.

I’m a writer and a podcaster, so I express myself primarily through my words. But deep down, I’m a highly visual person.

Most of my inspiration comes from visual media. In a lot of ways, the biggest influence on my writing isn’t other bloggers — it’s YouTubers, TikTokers, and influencers with a flair for photography.

Instagram puts images front and center. There’s plenty of text to read if you want to, but it’s always presented as a companion to the visuals.

Scrolling through my feed gives me an endless stream of gorgeous, eye-catching, and highly stimulating content and I simply love it.

It also feels a little more private than platforms like Twitter.

I know that’s weird to say given that it’s a highly accessible and public social media platform. But every conversation on Instagram feels like it’s contained in its own little universe. Each of them takes place in the responses to a photo or a video, and that’s where it stays.

Twitter feels more intrusive. Comments on posts you don’t care about show up in your feed. People you don’t follow poke in because someone you do follow liked one of their posts. The more I used the site, the less personal and personalized it felt.

Instagram also has more permanence to it.

Yes, it’s a feed that constantly refreshes, but it never feels like it’s being flooded. Going to someone’s account and scrolling through their posts felt like looking through a collection of their highlights instead of a mess of replies and responses.

That was really appealing to me as a creator. Some of my photos and videos take hours to create. Behind every shot, there’s a pile of invisible labor, from staging the area and setting up the equipment to working every angle to find the right one and meticulously editing the images to get every detail right.

The thought of throwing it up on Twitter and having it basically disappear within a few hours is heartbreaking.

So, I made Instagram my social media platform of choice.

I learned to ignore most of my DMs because that’s where all the trashy stuff, the dick pics, and the sexual harassment took place. So, no, it wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But I loved posting there and I actually felt good after spending time on it.

It’s where I put all my best stuff, my most polished photos and posts, and where I tried hardest to build a following.

And starting next week, all that hard work might not amount to much.

Instagram’s New Sex Negative Community Guidelines

Instagram was already an uneasy space for sex content.

On Twitter, it’s not unusual for my feed to fill up with endless vulgarity. Sex workers can freely post nudes in positions that no one would ever call tasteful. Porn creators promote their work by sharing montages of themselves tit dropping, sucking dick, and sticking dildos wherever they damn please.

It’s all part of the free-for-all atmosphere that makes Twitter both a garbage fire and a refreshingly open corner of the internet.

But Instagram was the place where sex workers would have their accounts shut down. It’s where people whose content was even remotely sexy ran the risk of being shadowbanned.

By and large, though, if you were willing to play within the rules, you could find a way to promote yourself, connect with followers, and point them to the raunchy stuff you really want them to see.

About a month ago, Instagram announced changes to Community Guidelines that would make it impossible to promote sexually explicit content without running up against its rules.

The site’s new Community Standards come into effect on December 20th, and I got increasingly dismayed as I read down the list of four items listed under the “Do not post” label.

The first item bans people from using the platform to coordinate any kind of sex work.

Then, it expands those restrictions to include content that only implicitly or indirectly involves any kind of sexual solicitation.

Even cheekily selling nudes, porn, or sex by using suggestive emojis is on its way out. I can only imagine it’s a matter of time before we hear of people being banned for using the peach emoji while having their OnlyFans listed in their LinkTree.

It even bafflingly includes nudity that is covered up. I guess Instagram is so hungry for censorship that even hiding your naked body isn’t good enough anymore.

Then there’s the porn clause.

As someone who reviews porn and promotes adult sites on my podcast, that’s a problem for me.

I could just leave the URLs out of it. But it’s kind of a dick move to mention porn videos, porn creators, porn sites, or any kind of adult content and not at least giving them a link.

And then there’s the final item.

This is the one that makes me worried about the content I already have up on my account.

I review sex toys. I talk excitedly about using them. I naturally imply or mention my horniness, since that’s the whole point of those things.

My podcast is about sex and it’s as filthy as I’m comfortable being. So, my posts promoting it are often a little naughty.

The more I think about the different ways I could run afoul of the new rules, the more I realize how wide their effect is going to be. It’s still not entirely clear where the boundaries are. But what is clear is that it will be very easy to cross them.

Where Will the Horny People Go?

Instagram isn’t going to flop because of this. It will still be a hub for a lot of influencers, amateur photographers, and people who like to share shots of their daily lives.

It will still have some enjoyable content and I might check my feed once in a while.

But for people like me, Instagram after December 20th will be like Tumblr after its porn ban — a site that has lost some of its charm and a lot of the things that made it fun.

For people who create sex content, the big question isn’t whether to leave the platform. At this point, that seems to be a given. The question is which one to use instead.

I’ve thought about rolling the dice and seeing how long I can keep using Instagram before I get booted from it. But that would mean working hard to build a following and create a presence knowing that it could all be wiped out overnight.

I’m also hesitant to keep promoting and supporting a platform that’s so shitty to people who sell sex. I don’t consider myself a sex worker, but I have nothing but respect and admiration for them.

Plus, it would be hypocritical of me to subscribe to a few cute girls on OnlyFans or jill off to amateurs on Pornhub and then shrug when their ability to promote their work and profit from it is threatened.

I’ve still got Twitter. I don’t love it as a platform, but at least my work feels safer there.

I’m also kicking around the idea of starting a free OnlyFans. That’s the platform that comes closest to giving me the Instagram vibe that drew me to it in the first place.

None of the options I have are perfect. They don’t give me the gorgeous, smooth, and vibrant feel of scrolling through Instagram. But a fantastic aesthetic experience can’t make up for all the sex negativity.