Instagram have issued an apology after censoring posts from a London-based fishmonger, claiming the content had been flagged by mistake.
Rex Goldsmith, aka The Chelsea Fishmonger, regularly shares images of his shop display to his 2,700 followers on Instagram.
However, in the past couple of his weeks two of his posts have been censored, with a greyed-out page appearing over the top of his images warning users the posts contained ‘offensive material’.
Earlier this week, Rex took to Instagram to inform followers his content had been flagged and speculated it could have been down to a ‘vegan warrior’.
In regards to one of the censored post, he added:
I can assure you we are all fully clothed and not a single swear word passes our lips!
According to BBC News, the fishmonger pointed out some posts on social media could be considered as much more offensive than his displays of fish.
He said:
I totally understand censorship – but when you think that Instagram is owned by Facebook, and if you look at some of the videos on Facebook, they are disgusting – some are violent, some have foul language – I find it a bit bizarre that they can then think a bit of cod fillet is offensive.
A spokesperson from Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, has since issued an apology on the matter, explaining the content was marked as sensitive ‘in error’ and has been reinstated.
They added:
We apologise for the mistake.
The social media company did not mention whether any Instagram users had specifically complained about the posts but The Vegan Society has responded to the situation, telling The Telegraph that while vegans do find images of dead animals offensive, they would be unlikely to follow the Instagram account of a fishmonger.
Rex told the BBC he was not aware of any other fishmongers having their content censored, though he had heard of similar situations with butchers.
He described Instagram as a ‘shop window’ for businesses and added ‘I have nothing against people who choose not to eat meat or fish, but it’s my little business and I am precious about it’.
Although he was frustrated about having his posts censored, Rex admitted the warning signs could actually work to make more people click on the image as ‘if you’re scrolling through your Instagram feed and you come across a censored image, you’d want to have a look’.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.