Artist starts legal case against Meta for deleting her Instagram account
Emma Shapiro and her lawyers are fighting the “loss of her artistic archive, audience, professional visibility and space for public debate”
Artist Aimee Dawson is embarking on a legal battle against Meta for the permanent deletion of her Instagram account. The controversy arose after a video of a metal pole adorned with Dawson's nipple stickers was posted on the @nipeople account, which she uses as part of her Exposure Therapy project. The project aims to challenge the censorship of female-presenting bodies online and offline, specifically by normalising the visibility of female nipples.
Despite Dawson submitting an appeal through Instagram's in-app process, the account was permanently deleted the following day without any opportunity for her to provide evidence or explanation. Dawson, a US-based artist living in Spain, has filed a complaint with the Spanish CNMC under the European Union's Digital Services Act. She argues that Meta failed to provide a clear reason for the decision, denied her access to an effective complaint-handling process, and acted unfairly in imposing the severe sanction.
The complaint is being handled through both a European user rights dispute resolution procedure and a complaint before Spain's Digital Services Coordinator. Meta has not responded to requests for comment on the case. Dawson's legal approach seeks to apply the DSA not only to content removal but also to the termination of an artist's entire account, including the loss of their artistic archive, audience, professional visibility, and space for public debate.
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