The facts
Irene Breen, owner of a pregnancy‑pillows business, told the BBC that Instagram removed adverts for her products after she was warned that the word “pregnancy” violated platform policy. Meta, Instagram’s parent, required her to strip the term from her website, product names and URLs, causing a significant financial hit over a ten‑month period. Meta declined specific comment but said wellness, sexual health and reproductive products are allowed, with restrictions to avoid negative user experiences across cultures. Women’s health creators, charities and brands report content removal, added sensitivity filters and reach suppression – a practice known as shadow‑banning. CensHERship’s recent survey of nearly 200 creators, clinicians and organisations found 96 % experienced some form of restriction. Dr Carolina Are, a digital criminologist at the London School of Economics, explained that AI moderation often misidentifies content, leading to repeated errors. Athena Lamnisos, CEO of the Eve Appeal charity, said a post with a vulval‑cancer diagram was initially removed and later placed behind a sensitivity filter. Deirdre O’Neill of Hertility reported a video about endometriosis was classified as political content by Meta. Both Meta and TikTok say they allow women’s health content and are working to improve their systems, but creators describe advertising as an “obstacle course.”
Our take
Well, here’s a fresh low: the world’s richest tech overlords have become so fucking squeamish about the word “pregnancy” that they force a woman selling pregnancy pillows to scrub the very term that defines her product. Meta’s AI, a digital hall monitor with the sensitivity of a Victorian spinster, flagged the word as a violation, dragging her business into a ten‑month financial nightmare. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The same algorithmic pricks have hidden life‑saving cancer diagrams behind a warning label, treating a vulval‑cancer illustration like porn. A video about endometriosis – a disease that makes women bleed internally for years – was slapped with a “political content” tag, as if the real politics is the pain of the sufferers. TikTok isn’t any better; creators describe advertising on the platform as an obstacle course that ends in endless appeals and removals. The excuse? A corporate PR line about preventing negative user experiences across different cultures. Translated: they’d rather silence women worldwide than risk offending some hypothetical, easily‑ogled dipshit. The AI, built on mis‑detections, repeats its own mistakes, creating a feedback loop of puritanical censorship. The result is a 96 % reported restriction rate for health information while garbage content floods the feed. This isn’t a bug; it’s a feature of a system built by arrogant bastards who think women’s bodies are inherently obscene. Fuck your algorithms and fuck your sensitivity filters. The only thing they’re protecting is their bottom line, not anyone’s health.
