Censored, from the Archives: a Selective Timeline of Art Censorship on Social Media Platforms
Some of the oldest art objects we know of are small, hand-carved stone figurines from the Paleolithic Period which depict women with exaggerated features. As exemplified by the Venus of Willendorf — which art historians believe may have represented an early fertility deity — these statuettes symbolize the awesome power and “divinity” of procreation. The Venus of Willendorf in particular is the most well-known prehistoric depiction of a woman in the world and one of the earliest examples of manmade art. In ways both metaphysical and elemental, the Venus of Willendorf and statues like it epitomize our origins as human beings. Yet despite its centrality to the human story, art depicting the body has faced relentless censorship, investigation, and inquisition. Most recently, social media giants have doggedly maintained this historical tradition, scrubbing artwork from their platforms that they deem unsuitable for the internet.
Interview with Lips Founder, Annie Brown
With lips, we did a lot of very intentional co design work from the very beginning. So we worked with users to determine what they liked about social media, what they don't like about social media. So the things they liked about social media, we kept the same, you know, the ability to share images, likes, you know, the ability to repost things, things like that. And then things that they didn't like, like the algorithm promoting certain people over other people. The rampant hate speech and exploitative content, the removing marginalized users from the platform's those things we addressed. While you might log into lips and see, okay, it looks a lot like Instagram. There are a lot of small things and big things that are different. And those were all intentional and designed alongside with the community. I'll give you an example. When you log into the app, you’re walked through the community guidelines before you get into the app. So it's not like the community guidelines or something you go out of your way to try to find the community guidelines set the foundation for what the space is intended to be.