Perhaps one of the most commonly used and familiar tools for artists is image manipulation: strategically placed censor bars, selective cropping, pixellation, and blurring—even in works like non-photo-realistic drawings, paintings, and sculpture. This allows viewers to glean the essence of the image while appeasing content moderation guidelines- though even the most obvious and even satirical manipulations can still trip up the algorithms. There are ways in which it can be done to downplay the intervention, though of course it can’t be too subtle, or else the algorithm might pick it up as an “uncensored” content violation.

Picking up on these trends that are meant to erase and downplay contested content, In 2022 Don’t Delete Art issued its own GIPHY sticker as part of our advocacy campaign we called the DAY OF ACTION—we invited artists to not-so-subtly make visible the self- censorship they felt forced to participate in, by adding our logo sticker over any sensitive content. The original stickers are still searchable within Giphy, —you can see our available stickers in Giphy if you search @dontdeleteart in Instagram's stickers.

“Propuesta de orgía para los seres cósmicos”
© Carlota Guerrero

example
Iness Rychlik

“♾”
© Carlota Guerrero

example
Justyna Neryng

example
jvoto

example
post from PPOW gallery

blurred butts
ADEY

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Share only portions, zoomed in, etc – link elsewhere for full artwork image. Using the grid: Posting cropped portions of an image one at a time to create a much larger and uncensored work

Blind Spots, 2023
Liza Shkirando

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Some artists use text to cover parts of their images, calling attention to their self-censorship as an act of defiance. Others have played with how they post, such as hiding artwork behind a carousel of innocuous images

Armando Cabba @armandocabba

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Signal that it’s art… with caption text, frames, showing walls/installation views, pencils, brushes, etc. (This may be helpful for appeals processes later on)

It is important to contextualize your art, especially if it follows Community Guidelines, but may be mistaken for violating them. For example, this would apply to photo-realistic drawings or paintings, or photographic nudity that is used in the context of protest (as photo-realistic art and photographic nudity in the context of protest are acceptable according to Meta’s Community Guidelines). Effectively contextualizing your work will help an algorithm or human to view your work as complying with Community Guidelines, therefore minimizing the likelihood of your content being unjustly censored. Add clues that allude to the work’s medium or purpose – making clear the work is a painting of a nude and not a photograph, or that it is a political protest, etc. For instance, there could be a pencil or paintbrush laying on top of the work. Meta allows nudity in painting, sculpture, and drawing, but does not allow nude imagery featuring real adults as in photography, even if it is artistic. Consider the context of the other works you are posting on your account and make sure it reflects the nature of your artistic practice: For example, if you post more images of paintings, then it is more likely that your work will be considered to be a painting. In the case of protest art, if you post material relating to the subject of protest, it is more likely that an image containing nudes as a form of protest would be interpreted correctly. Add captions and descriptions of the work posted. It is most important for Facebook or Instagram to see any type of caption that refers to the artwork’s medium, especially if the work is non-photographic, yet photorealistic. If your art is used in the context of political or social protest, be sure to explicitly demonstrate this context through accompanying text and captions.

Ways to contextualize your posts:

-Use neutral terms like “art” and “painting” rather than phrases that allude to nudity or sexually explicit content.

-Adding text: Posting things like “THIS IS ART DO NOT DELETE”

-Discussing the context of the image, such as it being an exhibition or a published artists book

-Tagging specific accounts and including hashtags that help contextualize your group

-Strategic collaboration and tagging people

Art publication
ADEY

gallery install
ADEY

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Platforms analyzes both the image and the text of a post to determine whether it follows the guidelines. As such, users have approached the text accompanying their artwork in different ways to either evade censorship or contextualize the artwork. AlgoSpeak, or ‘algorithmic speak’ are words used to circumvent algorithms used to monitor, block, delete, or suppress certain words that can be deemed inappropriate, taboo, sensitive, or vulgar, across many different digital systems. To circumvent this, creators can use coded language and expressions, euphemisms, and linguistic concealment to discuss the topics that platform algorithms are scared of. This is a practice across languages, and often combined with other mitigating techniques. It isn’t only limited to the text of the post, but also used in the post itself.