Tell Meta Oversight Board: Women’s Sexual Health is NOT Hate Speech

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Tell Meta Oversight Board: Women’s Sexual Health is NOT Hate Speech

The petition to The Meta Oversight Board reads:

As a group of women and allies, we are deeply disturbed by Meta’s recent removal of the Instagram account belonging to women’s sexual health platform Bellesa, allegedly over the platform’s use of the word “clitoris.” The move sends a message that medically accurate and body-positive sexual health information about women is “dirty” or “unacceptable”—the same message that shames women about their bodies and breeds rape culture. Meanwhile, ads for erectile dysfunction treatment and other male-focused sexual health advertisements remain widespread on Meta platforms. The double standard is staggering, and Bellesa’s removal is just the latest incident. The removal also comes just after a court ruling ordered Meta to pay nearly $400 million for failing to protect children on its platforms, including exposing children to child sex trafficking. The idea that Meta is putting its content moderation efforts into censoring scientific health terms while letting child sex trafficking go unchecked is appalling.

We call on Meta to:

Immediately reinstate Bellesa’s two accounts on Instagram.

Launch an investigation into the removal of Bellesa’s account and censorship of women’s sexual health information on Meta platforms.

Last week, Meta banned an Instagram account dedicated to women’s sexual health and empowerment. The so-called “violation"? Using the word “clitoris.”

The now-banned account was run by Bellesa Boutique, an online store that sells sex toys for women and LGBTQ+ people. The mission of this online community was to create a safe, shame-free space where women and LGBTQ+ individuals could learn about and celebrate their own bodies. After a decade of promoting body positivity and sexual wellness, Bellesa had grown to a community of 700,000. Meta erased that community overnight for daring to write about women’s anatomy.

We know the account’s removal is about censoring content about women’s sexual health because ads and content about men’s sexual health – including wildly misogynistic ads for erectile dysfunction – continue to run freely across Meta’s platforms. Meanwhile, Meta refuses to take action against actually harmful content, including homophobic slurs, racial violence, anti-trans hate, AI sexual deepfakes, and child sex trafficking and endangerment. In fact, mere weeks ago, Meta was ordered to pay hundreds of millions for failing to protect children online.

Put simply, sexual wellness is not the problem on Instagram. And yet, we’re once again the group being punished and policed. Enough is enough. That's UltraViolet and Repro Uncensored are teaming up to demand that the Meta Oversight Board reinstate Bellesa on Instagram and investigate its removal. Sign now to join the fight.