An account by The Naked Rugby Players, which aims to raise awareness of male cancers and body positivity, on the Facebook-owned Instagram platform has been threatened with removal after it uploaded two pictures from its 2020 calendar featuring the LGBT+ Rugby club, Chester Centurions.
The two pictures in question featured no actual nudity and were cropped inline with Instagram’s no genital policy.
This isn’t the first time that Instagram has pulled, censored, deleted or threatened to delete an account over pictures of nearly naked men or men that are naked but have their genitals covered.
Screenshots shared by The Naked Rugby Players seen by THEGAYUK show that the account holders weren’t even permitted to lodge an appeal with Instagram and told that because there are fewer reviewers due to the coronavirus outbreak, one of the largest companies in the world, Facebook, wouldn’t be able to review the post.
The two images in question complied with Instagram’s “Nudity or sexual activity guideline” and did not show genitals, or “close-up of fully-nude buttocks”.
In fact take a look at them here.
Fans were quick to defend the calendar and accused Instagram of being “prudish” and “ridiculous” and that their deletion of images of men happened all too often.
We have reported that Instagram has blocked numerous gay male accounts for images that it says breaks its policies, such as porn star Brent Everett, meat Magazine, Celebrity Master Chef winner Riyadh Khalaf however, it seemingly has set a double standard, by allowing singer Lizzo and Kim Kardashian to keep, to name a couple, fully nude pictures published on the platform.
After THEGAYUK.com reached out to Instagram for comment on the picture removals, the two posts in question were restored as well as a number of other pictures which had been deleted by the social network in the past.
Facebook told THEGAYUK that it’s ‘investigating’ the issue.
The Naked Rugby Players 2021 Unseen Bits calendar is now available to order.
