Instagram is useful to increase brand awareness, but when the brands are magazines related to sensitive or erotic topics, they have to face its policy. So, they have tried different techniques of self-censorship to ensure their presence on Instagram. The research has produced a database of self-censored posts of these magazines, that allows analyzing the visual languages and their evolution.
Main Findings
In most of the analyzed cases, magazines prefer a specific language of self-censorship; for instance, “Hustler” mainly uses symbols, and “Baron” applies pixels.
Self-censorship is sometimes made of mixed techniques; for example, “Leste” used both sketch and text to cover a woman’s breasts in one post.
An unusual technique of self-censorship involves objects. This is the case of “Self Service” and “Ossì Fanzine” that publish posts in which physical objects overlap printed materials to cover body parts.
Over time, “Playboy” has changed its style of self-censorship, going from sketch to pixels without using other types of language; on the contrary, “S” had a deep change of style, but with some intermediate variations.
Protocol
