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Instagram deletes user photo twice for featuring menstrual blood, subsequently apologizes

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By Nesh Pillay, Reporter

March 27, 2015 | 2 min read

Instagram has twice deleted, and then reposted a user’s photo that featured period blood.

The user, Rupi Kaur, a Toronto-based college student, posted the pictures to highlight what she calls a misogynistic society.

After the photo of a fully-clad female lying in bed with a spot of blood on her pants was first deleted, Kaur reposted it, challenging Instagram because technically, it adhered to the platform’s community guidelines.

“Thank you @instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique,” she wrote. “You deleted a photo of a woman who is fully covered and menstruating stating that it goes against community guidelines when your guidelines outline that it is nothing but acceptable. The girl is fully clothed. The photo is mine. Tt is not attacking a certain group, nor is it spam. And because it does not break those guidelines, I will repost it again.”

Still, the photo was taken down.

Kaur then posted the letter to Facebook, along with an open letter to Instagram.

This morning, the photo reappeared on Kaur’s Instagram, bearing the following apology.

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