Instagram has reversed the removal of a photo of two men kissing after a fierce backlash.
The BBC reports that photographer Stella Asia Consonni was told her picture, which was posted on June 30th, was removed for “violating community guidelines”. It depicted Jordan Bowen and Luca Lucifer and was published in a piece in I-D Magazine. It will form part of an upcoming exhibit about modern relationships.
Consonni said that she received “many hate messages, saying that it's disgusting and that I should kill myself for posting it” after first uploading the image to the Facebook-owned social network.
Bowen added that the picture’s removal "reduced [his seven-year relationship with Luca] to a community guideline."
The protests about the picture’s removal were amplified by celebrities such as singer Olly Alexander and Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall.
"This post was removed in error and we are sorry. It has since been reinstated," an Instagram spokesperson said. The company seemingly confirmed that the move was indeed the result of somebody raising a report, saying that errors are inevitable as it received millions of reports a week.
Consonni said after the post’s reappearance that “Instagram apologised for taking the picture down but there is still a long way to go to fight homophobia - judging also from the hate comments”.
