Instagram Removed This Male Model's Steamy Pic

When British model and certified hunk Kenny Ethan Jones posted a steamy, sexy picture on Instagram this weekend, he clearly expected to get likes. Who knows, he may have expected a few new bookings, and definitely more than a few thirsty DMs. But what he didn't expect was to get his post taken down for featuring "nudity or sexual activity."

And yet, here we are.

The photo, to be fair, is extremely hot. Jones is posing seemingly nude and has his hand over his crotch. While he's not wearing any clothes, there's nothing explicit about the picture. We see tons of this sort of thing all over the grid. Still, the picture was taken down and Jones -- as well as some other users who shared the photo on their Instagram Stories -- was given a notice that it went against Instagram's "Community Guidelines on nudity or sexual activity."

In response, Jones emailed the company, and shared a screenshot of that email with his followers. In the email he says he read over the guidelines and that his post doesn't go against anything that is outlined there. "I don't believe I'm breaking any rules," the model, who is trans, wrote. "It's pretty unsettling when I can literally scroll down my explorer page right now and find CIS men more naked than I am in that photo but yet, mine gets removed."

Jones posted a new version of the picture, with a sticker of the Instagram logo covering some of his body, in hopes that this picture would meet their guidelines.

"I'm in conversation with @instagram to rectify this issue, they are being very understanding and helpful," he wrote as the caption, "in fact come Monday (I'm speaking to them outside of working hours so nothing can be done yet) I don't think this will even be an issue."

"They have also agreed to jump on a call with me to discuss policies in more detail as this can be a common problem amongst models," he added.

The removal comes in a long string of censorship on social media. Just last week, Facebook and Instagram outlined new, more stringent guidelines on what is and is not allowed. This comes after multiple instances of queer and trans bodies, specificially, being censored. Whether Jones is able to come to some sort of personal solution with Instagram is beside the point; not every person has the social capital that he has to even demand a response from the platform. For the majority, being shut down by an anonymous algorithm is many times the end of the line.

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