THE META EFFECT

Jerry Weiss reached out to Zan to share his recent experiences with Meta’s new algorithm, its’ hindrance on artists reach online, and the overall experience of being shadow banned. Jerry Weiss studied drawing with Roberto Martinez in Miami, FL, and drawing and painting with Harvey Dinnerstein, Robert Beverly Hale, Ted Seth Jacobs, Mary Beth McKenzie, and Jack Faragasso at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design in New York City. He currently teaches a Figure painting and Figure drawing class at the Arts Students League of New York.

Since their inception, social media applications have given many creatives of all fields the space to showcase and promote their work. In particular, platforms such as Instagram and Tumblr came to be such successes in large part through their appeal to artists. These virtual spaces not only allowed for artists to reach and expand their audiences, it also allowed for dialogues and sources of inspiration, without many limits. While there have always been policies and filters in place against extreme materials, Instagram and other platforms allowed for potentially subversive work to be displayed, including depictions of nudity. However, a troubling shift towards suppression has emerged in the last few years. For artist Jerry Weiss, a notable and alarming change is how Instagram, acquired by the Meta Platforms in 2012, seeks to censor those capturing the human form.

We asked Jerry about his experience with the new patterns in Meta’s censorship. While Jerry’s Instagram covers both figurative and landscape paintings, he noted that the posts that are targeted are usually ones including the human figure. These censorships often come as a “warning” from Instagram stating that the user has violated the community guidelines. The warning states that “this decision is based on our guidelines on sexually explicit or suggestive content. “This means that while figurative art is not explicitly against Meta’s guidelines, it is automatically recognized as sexual content. Along with the warning, Instagram gives users the option to “edit or remove” such content in order for the user’s account “to be okay for recommendation again.”

The screenshot shows how these warnings usually appear on a user’s account. While they usually do not remove the content themselves, Instagram wants users to remove this type of content or to alter it in a way so that it won’t be on the platform anymore. If the user refuses to change it, their ability to reach more audiences is compromised. The issue, Jerry argues, lies in the fact that Meta recognizes any resemblance to the nude human form as inherently sexually explicit. In doing so, it undermines the field of art itself by denying the understanding that capturing the human form is a necessary part of the arts. The idea and construct of art is lost in the digital guidelines.

Not only does this passive aggressive admonishment degrade the artist, it still acts as censorship by impacting their ability to expand their audience. Once a user keeps their “problematic” content on their account, their content will not be shown to non-followers. Instagram warns users of this after their incoordination with their “Recommendations Guidelines.” Such accounts “won’t appear in places like Explore, Search, Suggested Users, Reels, and Feed Recommendations.” If the user continues to disagree with Instagram’s decision, they are given the option to appeal. While Instagram must take another look, this type of content may still not be approved.

Furthermore, while they may allow the content to remain, this is an illusion of choice. When asked how this impacted his reach on Instagram, he mentioned how “Meta’s shadow ban has resulted in a more than 90% decrease in reach to my Instagram followers, and a nearly total suppression of reach to new accounts. The ban is ostensibly an algorithmic response to posting figurative art, but it doesn’t lift for other art—my metrics are even worse when I post landscape paintings. Despite persistent requests for review, I continue to receive notices that figurative art is not considered appropriate to share with new accounts.”

The suppression may be concealed in niceties and false choice, but the data shows us that Instagram is becoming less friendly to artists unless they fit in the box Meta provides.The first image is Jerry Weiss’ metrics of his painting post in May 18, 2023 when his content was being targeted regularly. The second image show the statistics of a particularly well-viewed painting posted the previous year.

The struggle of sharing art on a platform where many people spend many hours of screen time is becoming an impossible task. When I asked Jerry about the worst consequence of Instagram’s shadow ban, he responded that “The consequences are at least twofold. By suppressing viewership, it has become much more difficult to reach prospective art collectors, and to disseminate information about upcoming classes and workshops.” Jerry also noted that “undoubtedly the effect of Meta’s policies has been harmful. My correspondence with other artists who have reached Instagram employees confirms my experiences. Meta has no interest in assisting or even enabling a level playing field for visual artists. Its priorities are focused elsewhere.”

Since this interview occurred, several current events have highlighted more than ever that censorship and control by a select few are a real threat, not just to artists, but to their audiences and to all consumers of media. The importance of an uncensored forum online for artists is fundamental for an artistic and free society.