Instagram took down a picture of an African American model called Nyome Nicholas-Williams, sparking widespread outrage, as netizens broke out in support of the model. The #IWantToSeeNyome hashtag became viral and garnered more than a million reshares.
A dreamy split-second candid picture of Nicholas-Williams bathed under natural light, her eyes closed and arms wrapped around her breasts had been captured by photographer Alexandra Cameron. The response on Instagram was ecstatic: “stunning … beautiful … this should be in a gallery!”. But within hours, Instagram had deleted the photo and Nicholas-Williams had been warned her account could be shut down. “Millions of pictures of very naked, skinny white women can be found on Instagram every day,” said Nicholas-Williams. “But a fat black woman celebrating her body is banned? It was shocking to me. I feel like I’m being silenced.”
Following this, hundreds of users shared the censored photograph with the hashtag #IWantToSeeNyome on Instagram and various other social media platforms, along with accusations over Instagram’s disconnect between its positive statements over Black Lives Matter and the apparent unfair targeting of its black content creators.
The platform, with over a billion users and 15,000 people working around the world to review posts and look for banned material, has been repeatedly accused of discriminating against black people.