In a Dec. 14 Twitter thread, May Vutrapongvatana, the policy director for New York City Council candidate Shahana Hanif, criticized Instagram’s Terms of Use update. 

“On Dec. 20, Instagram will be changing their terms of service,” May wrote. “The new terms will censor many sex educators and sex workers who rely on Instagram for their work and publicity. Sex educators and sex workers are already being shadowbanned on Instagram are predominantly BIPOC, queer, and fat folks. This censorship impacts the income and visibility of so many BIPOC, queer, and fat sex educators and sex workers. Shadowbanning has also impacted regular folks like myself who talk about social justice issues.”

May continued, “Censoring sex educators and sex workers not only impacts the creators but also folks who rely on social media for info. Because sex education is not accessible or available for many due to stigma, social media can play a huge role in providing comprehensive sex ed. We need to ensure that sex workers and sex educators are able to freely use Instagram without fear of deletion and censorship.”