We live in a place where we pride ourselves on freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of this and freedom of that. We are proud to not deal with censorship in our media, and the topic of having any form of Internet censorship stirs up an American’s emotions quickly.
Today we are facing a new censorship controversy that too many people are blind to.  We are facing forms of censorship from social media companies such as Facebook and Instagram and giving them say in what we post, and how we voice our everyday lives and stories.
According to an article by The Guardian, “Facebook has previously faced an outcry from breastfeeding mothers over its treatment of images showing them with their babies. The issue has rumbled on, and now seems to have been embedded in its ‘Abuse Standards Violations’, which states that banned items include ‘breastfeeding photos showing other nudity, or nipple clearly exposed’.
It also bans ‘naked private parts’ including ‘female nipple bulges and naked butt cracks’ – though ‘male nipples are OK’.” (This includes a baby’s naked bottom as well.)
Another recent addition to their terms and agreements states that one cannot post photos of animals that have been hunted for trophies or awards. This means that for some people, they cannot post photos of their careers and sports.
A very publicly known story was a controversy caused by Instagram. Recently, the photo sharing network censored a photo taken by Rupi Kaur as a part of an art project she was working on. The photo showed the artist lying in bed with a small leak of menstrual blood in her sweatpants. When the photo was removed, the artist and a supportive community were outraged.
Again, social media censored work created by someone that wanted to share the work with her followers. The argument made by the companies and those in favor of the censorship is that it is “rude” and “unpleasant” to see such images. But in response, I would say “then unfollow the user posting the pictures.”
It should not be up to the company to choose what we can and cannot post when the photos are perfectly legal. A woman breastfeeding is a beautiful part of motherhood, and an art piece that showcases a natural part of a woman’s body cycle should be able to be shared on a social media platform designed to do just that type of sharing.
My worry is that too many people turn a “cold shoulder” on such an important matter. Many people were upset when Augustana banned Yik Yak earlier this year because some students said it was taking away their voice.
What if tomorrow Facebook said no more posting about Augustana because some students do not like Augustana, or  if Instagram said no more posting pictures of the color green because some people do not like green?
Would we be okay with that as well? I am not saying the companies do not have the right to do this type of censorship, they definitely do, but when they exercise this right they tell artists, mothers, people who go through normal life cycles, people who hunt as a career and every social media user that their story should not be shared because it is offensive to some others.
Social media censoring our posts needs to end and if we are offended by a post, we need to grow up and learn to click unfollow. It is easy as that.