Instagram's Updated Guidelines Frown Upon Your Shenanigans

Instagram has decided to buckle down and confront those who are using the service in ways they shouldn't be, including to harass or share others' content. It has updated its Community Guidelines, and has lightened the nice-guy talk, more firmly dictating what is and isn't acceptable for those on the website. The photo-sharing service has run into critics in the past for how it handles certain content, and in light of that it has also gotten specific about what is allowed: breastfeeding images, for example, are okay, as are post-mastectomy scarring images.

Instagram has made it clear that you should only be sharing your own content, or content you've the right to share. You're also required to avoid doing anything spam-like, such as artificially getting shares or likes. Obviously enough, Instagram is also saying you need to "follow the law". This includes avoiding the support of terrorism/hate/organized crime, hawking one's self for adult services, and such.

On a wider scale, Instagram is asking its photographers to share content that is okay for "diverse" audiences. It acknowledges that nudes could be artistic, but it doesn't want them anyway. A variety of specific instances of nudity are expressly banned, including things like "fully-nude buttocks".

Other instances of banned content are things that glorify self-injury, including things like cutting. You'll need to be respectful of other users, and if you're posting anything especially violent or graphic it may be removed — this is so that it is appropriate for everyone. In general, you'll find the requirements are simply more specific.

Said Instagram's director of public policy Nicky Jackson Colaco to the WSJ, "In the old guidelines, we would say 'don't be mean'. Now we're actively saying you can't harass people. The language is just stronger."