A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
By Kaniehtonkie.
Wednesday, May 5th was Red Dress Day in Canada and National Day of Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in the United States. The next day, widespread reports were made of people on both sides of the border flooding social media with comments saying their Instagram "stories" and Facebook posts had disappeared.
On May 6th, Illuminative issued this statement, "This morning, we were made aware that there was a widespread problem on Instagram where posts that highlighted the issue were taken down or deleted. Posts we've been able to count as deleted range from artwork, videos of solidarity, resources, information that highlights organizations who work on this issue. On a day when many Indigenous peoples turned to social media to share how the epidemic has impacted them, our community, and families, they were silenced using a platform we have often turned to find community and educate others.
This action by Instagram is reprehensible and we call on Instagram for transparency on:
- Why the deletion of #MMIWG2S posts occurred;
- A clear timeline and plan on what policy and procedures changes will occur to ensure this does not happen again; and
- A clear plan and commitment from Instagram on how they will work to uplift and bring attention to this issue and elevate Native voices.
As advocates, we will continue to hold Instagram accountable for the erasure of Native peoples. Erasure of Native peoples and issues is violence and is rooted in white supremacy. We expect transparency and action on this issue."
Instagram issued an apology Thursday night after posts about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) disappeared on a day meant to raise awareness of the issue, but advocates say it doesn't go far enough to address the harm that was done.
National Indigenous Women's Resource Center issued their statement in response to removed Instagram MMMNW content, "We appreciate Facebook's responsiveness to our concerns on behalf of the thousands of Indigenous advocates, community members and organizations who have worked tirelessly to shed light and spur action for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and relatives on and around May 5th," said Lucy Simpson (Diné), NIWRC Executive Director. "As a Native-led anti-violence organization, we believe the erasure of Indigenous voices is violence and are deeply committed to holding corporations accountable for the censorship and erasure of Native voices, especially on such a personal issue that affects us all."
On Thursday afternoon, Instagram said on Twitter that the problem was a "widespread global technical issue," which specifically affected the platform's "stories" mode. By Thursday evening, the social media platform said the issue was fixed and that it had "impacted many stories containing re-shared posts created yesterday and early this morning, plus Highlights + Archive more broadly."
Their statement said, "We're sorry to all impacted, especially those raising awareness for important causes globally."
Many activists think the statement didn't take responsibility for the impact of what transpired on Thursday. the timing of this and how it was just a traumatic experience or re-traumatized people all over again to wake up and to have this feeling of being silenced or erased. MMIWG2S stories were not the only ones that were deleted – others were related to the crisis in India, and maternal mental health.
In an email to CBC News on Friday, a spokesperson with Facebook Canada, Instagram's parent company, offered a more specific response to Indigenous people whose posts vanished.
"We're really sorry to everyone impacted, especially those using their platform to raise awareness about important causes like the National Day of Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Red Dress Day," the statement said.
"It was not our intention to silence voices sharing valuable information for their communities."
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram said in a tweet on Thursday, "Many people thought we were removing their content because of what they posted or what hashtag they used, but this bug wasn't related to the content itself, but rather a widespread issue that has now been fixed."
"People around the world - from Colombia to East Jerusalem - use our platform to share what's happening. We know it was a really bad experience. Ultimately, I'm accountable for Instagram's stability, so I own this. I'm very sorry," he said.
"This also happened around National Day of Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. This day is incredibly important to raise awareness of this critical issue and support our Indigenous community on Instagram," Mosseri tweeted.
"We apologize to all those who felt like they could not bring attention to these incredibly important causes, and many others around the world. Helping people express themselves and raise awareness on the conversations they care about is at the heart of Instagram," he said.
Instagram continued, saying, "The two countries who faced the biggest impact were the United States and Brazil. All content has now been restored."
"We are so sorry this happened. Especially to those in Colombia, East Jerusalem, and Indigenous communities who felt this was an intentional suppression of their voices and stories-that was not our intent whatsoever."
Seven Dancers Coalition Executive Director Amie Barnes stated, "Every year around this time I am approached by a college student asking about MMIWG. After I share what I know they then ask, "How do I not know about this?" I think it blows their mind that something this horrible can still be happening today. I believe this is what happened to the social media platforms that deleted our posts. They just didn't know the significance of the day and how important this topic is to the Native American communities across the country. So, I say back to them "Now that you know, what are you going to do about it?"
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