Rihanna, if you’re still mad that you had to start a new Instagram account because you showed one too many nipple-y photos, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom really wants you to know he’d love to free the nipple if he could, but, really, he can’t. (But if only he could.)
In a talk given in London this week, Systrom finally explains why the social-media app has such draconian censorship rules. The upshot: It’s Apple’s fault! Not Instagram’s. Apple’s. He explained that Apple’s content guidelines ban nudity unless an app is rated 17+, which would bar younger users from Instagram. Some sacrifices had to be made: “In order to scale effectively there are [some] tough calls,” e.g., arbitrary censorship of female nipples.
But he vowed that Instagram would remain “committed to artistic freedom,” Business Insider reports, which means that photos of male nipples are totally okay and not in danger of censorship.
