A high-profile charity that speaks out against gender ideology has had its Instagram page permanently deleted in what appears to be a platform-wide clamp-down on critics of gender ideology.
As reported by Reduxx, Sex Matters is a registered charity in the United Kingdom, and describes its mission as being “to promote clarity about sex in law, policy and language in order to protect everybody’s rights.” Part of its advocacy includes the use of social media campaigns to get the word out about their efforts.
But on June 3, Sex Matters staff discovered that their Instagram account, @SexMattersOrg, had been suspended for allegedly breaking the website’s “community guidelines.” The page was primarily used to disseminate information on the organization’s values and activities.
The social media team at Sex Matters immediately appealed the removal of the social media profile and within “8 minutes” of submitting the appeal they were rejected. In the response by Instagram, the organization was told that their account had been reviewed and that Instagram had “found that it still doesn’t follow our Community Guidelines. As a result, your account has been permanently disabled”.
Writing to Instagram to protest the decision, Sex Matters CEO Maya Forstater raised the legal issue that led to the founding of the company which was registered as a charity this year. In 2021 Forstater took her employer to an Employment Appeal Tribunal which found that she had been discriminated against on the grounds of “belief” in the workplace, and that her “gender critical belief” has “been recognised by the UK courts as being “worthy of respect in a democratic society” and is therefore protected by the Equality Act 2010”.
The Sex Matters deletion comes in an apparent wave of censorship of account users who hold similar views on the topic of “gender critical” beliefs and are critical of trans activism. Many users had their accounts suspended concurrently, with some reinstated on appeal while others remain permanently banned, impacting their ability to advertise artwork and their political views.
Speaking to Reduxx, Maya Forstater, CEO of Sex Matters said: “It is outrageous for Instagram to suspend a registered charity without any details of how we are supposed to have breached ‘community guidelines’. UK politicians have serious questions to answer on sex and gender in the runup to the general election on 4th July. Our Instagram community is now missing out on important advice about what to ask candidates and canvassers who turn up on their doorstep.”
Worth reading in full.
