Instagram Plans To Remove and Restrict Diet Product Promotional Posts

In an effort to take a stand against “lose-weight-fast” promotions and miracle claims by influencers, Instagram has recently announced new policies that will remove and restrict those type of promotional posts involving weight loss products and cosmetic surgeries, according to a report on the Evening Standard.

This means that unrealistic and possibly unhealthy promotions will be be removed if they have an incentive to buy, and users can report posts that violate the new rules to Instagram for further review and action. The policy will also apply to Facebook.

Read: Here’s Why The Haze is Bad For Your Throat, Eye and Skin

Emma Collins, Instagram’s public policy manager was quoted as saying that this policy will also mean that those under 18 will not be able to see any of those branded promotions on their feed.

“If [a Kardashian’s] Instagram post is pulled into the policy of promoting diet products or procedures for sale then that post won’t be available to under 18s,” she said.

The decision by Instagram has garnered positive feedbacks from various anti-diet culture advocates, body-positive campaigners and healthy-living advocates, too.

Here’s what showed up on actress Jameela Jamil’s Instagram as a response to the announcement. She has been working with Instagram to put the policies in place for the past year.

 

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THIS IS HUGE NEWS. @i_weigh are changing the world together. After a bunch of shouting, screaming, and petitioning… we have managed to get the attention of the people at the top, and they have heard us and want to protect us. And this is just the beginning of our efforts. As of now, if you’re under 18, you will no longer be exposed to any diet/detox products, and for all other ages; all fad products that have bogus, unrealistic claims will be taken down and easy to report. I’ve been working with Instagram all year towards this, who were amazing to deal with, and they expressed that they passionately care about creating a safer space for us all online. This happened so much faster than I expected and I’m so proud and happy and relieved. WELL DONE to the many people who have been working towards this huge change. This is a mass effort. This is an extraordinary win that is going to make a big difference. Influencers have to be more responsible. ❤️

A post shared by Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamilofficial) on Sep 18, 2019 at 10:08am PDT

Dr Joshua Wolrich, who’s been working to promote healthy eating and to remove weight stigma has this to say:

 

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No more laxative weight-loss teas, gummies, lollipops, or any other unproven miracle weight-loss products that do f*ck all… all of those are going to be banned on Instagram (and Facebook). The Kardashians of the world are going to have to find more integrous ways of monetising their accounts ☺️. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Not only that, but many of the other posts selling diet products and cosmetic surgery are to be hidden from anyone under the age of 18. This is a massive step; you all know how I feel about selling weight-loss to children *cough* @ww *cough*. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Huge respect to @jameelajamilofficial, @i_weigh and @neda for working with Instagram over the last year to put this in place (and I’m sure many others I’m not aware of). We are all very grateful. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Now of course this isn’t going to be perfect, and things will slip through the net, but this is where all you lot come in. From today, you can now report an Instagram post under the reason of ‘False Information’. I cant express how happy this made when I found it a few hours ago 🥳. It’s not just weight-loss products, we finally have a way of reporting the harmful pseudoscience as well 👏🏻. Watch out all you ‘hormone-healing seed cycling’ and ‘keto diet cancer-curing’ charlatans. I’m coming for you.

A post shared by Dr Joshua Wolrich (MBBS MRCS) (@drjoshuawolrich) on Sep 19, 2019 at 12:42pm PDT

As promoters of wellness and health through body positivity, healthy-eating and an active lifestyle, SHAPE Malaysia couldn’t agree more on these new policies.

It’s a good start, Instagram!