14 DAY TRIAL // Scout Willis, daughter of famous actors Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, decided to take a very blunt and yet very controversial form of protest against Instagram's censorship policy. The model was determined to post several photos showing her roaming topless through the streets of New York and see how long it would be before the website took them down.
The 22-year-old seemed very bitter against Instagram, claiming that it was discriminating and its policy was illegal. The photos of her walking around the city without her top on were captioned “Legal in NYC but not on @instagram.”
In one photo, Scout can be seen walking nonchalantly down a street in New York while wearing nothing but a floral skirt and flat shoes, with the purse on one shoulder. The other photo, equally revealing, sees her reaching over for some flowers at a market stall.
The Willis sister must have been really upset about the whole Instagram thing if she was willing to protest by having a revealing photoshoot in the middle of New York, but then again, she's a model, so she's used to the attention.
Her campaign seems to echo what many other women were thinking and they immediately joined their voices to hers, providing examples where photos of their own had been removed because Instagram had deemed them inappropriate.
But Scout's message was clear and simple, and she didn't feel the need to be apologetic about it. “If you don't like what you see, simply unfollow me,” she said in one tweet. Later, she added an explanation, “My comfort with my body should not be dictated by how others perceive me. However, I don't wish to force this view on anyone.”
To prove her point, Scout added photos taken from “Instagram King” Dan Bilzerian's account, which featured scantily clad women in various enticing poses, and pointed out that Instagram did not censor those for some reason she speculated had something to do with misogyny.
The whole scandal seems to have started when Instagram decided to remove one of her photos some time ago. It was a sweatshirt called the Babe Bomber, which had two women without any tops printed on it.
“@instagram there is no way 2 contact you directly, I would really appreciate response b/c you took a lot of memories from me b/c u h8 nips,” she wrote, trying to reach out to the website. “Can I please just have all my photos back??? I won't even have an account anymore I just want my photos!” she added.
Her boycott of Instagram is getting bigger and bigger, and now more and more people are voicing their displeasure with the site's policy. But the fact remains that, since it offers a service for free to millions, it can legally have its own set of rules and you have to abide by them.
At the moment this article was written, Scout's Instagram profile was still suspended.