'We got penalised for saying 'pregnancy' on Instagram'
Small business owners and health creators report that social media platforms like Instagram are suppressing content related to women's health, such as pregnancy, by flagging it as sensitive. This has led to financial losses for businesses and concerns about the shadowbanning of legitimate health information.
Why it matters
It highlights the tension between automated content moderation policies and the needs of legitimate health-focused businesses and creators.
Image source, Irene Breen Image caption, Irene Breen told the BBC her business suffered a significant financial hit from the restrictions
BBC News Published 7 minutes ago When Irene Breen got a notification in January 2025 that Instagram was removing adverts for her company's pregnancy pillows, she was confused. What was so offensive about a pillow?
She was later told on a call with Meta that the problem was the word "pregnancy".
"We had to scrub the word from our entire website… from the product name," Breen said. "We had to remove all our URLs which had pregnancy in them and rename them all."
The restrictions were eventually lifted but, she said, it took 10 months of conversations with Instagram's parent company Meta - by which time her business had suffered a significant financial hit.
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