Press Release: AGL Files Complaint under EU Digital Services Act over Meta's Removal of Artist's Instagram Account
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 17 June 2026
Today, Avant-Garde Lawyers filed a complaint with the Spanish Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) on behalf of artist, journalist and activist Emma Shapiro, asserting that Meta failed to comply with several obligations under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) when it suspended and subsequently terminated the Instagram account associated with Ms Shapiro’s long-running artistic project Exposure Therapy.
Ms Shapiro, an American national residing in Spain, launched Exposure Therapy in 2017 to challenge the censorship of female-presenting bodies online and offline. The Instagram account @nipeople was created in 2018 as part of that initiative and has served as a platform for artistic expression, advocacy and public discussion about gendered censorship.
On 7 December 2025, Ms Shapiro shared a short video on @nipeople showing a metal pole covered in stickers. One of the stickers depicted nipples that were not attached to any other part of a human body. On the same day, Meta suspended the account, citing alleged violations of its Community Standards on “account integrity”. The suspension notification did not identify any conduct typically associated with account integrity violations, such as spam, impersonation, automated activity or attempts to evade enforcement measures. The account was permanently terminated the following day after Ms Shapiro submitted an appeal through Instagram’s one-click in-app process without any opportunity to provide reasons, context, evidence or explanation.
The complaint submitted by AGL argues that Meta failed to provide a sufficiently clear statement of reasons for its decision, denied Ms Shapiro access to an effective internal complaint-handling process, and failed to act in a diligent, objective and proportionate manner when imposing the severe sanction of permanent account termination.
“As a journalist and activist, I have seen how account termination can strip artists of their livelihoods, communities, archives, and professional visibility,” Ms Shapiro said. “Even so, I was shocked when my account was suspended under the vague rationale of ‘account integrity’ and devastated when it was ultimately terminated. This was not simply the loss of a social media account; it was the loss of a vital space for dialogue, community-building, and advocacy around gendered censorship and creative resistance.”
Kelsey Waxman, AGL’s Programmes and Operations Lead, said “The Digital Services Act was designed to ensure that online platforms cannot make consequential moderation decisions behind a wall of opacity. Artists and advocates should be able to understand why action has been taken against them and have a fair opportunity to challenge decisions they believe are wrong. We hope this case will help clarify those obligations in practice.”
AGL has found that, increasingly, content moderation decisions can have a profound impact on artistic practice, encouraging self-censorship, restricting artists’ ability to reach audiences and depriving them of professional opportunities and income that increasingly depend on access to online platforms.
About Avant-Garde Lawyers: Avant-Garde Lawyers (AGL) is an international legal organisation dedicated to protecting artistic freedom and defending artists at risk. It provides direct legal support, pursues strategic litigation and works through a global network of more than 100 pro bono lawyers across 41 countries to address censorship, persecution, criminal proceedings, exile, mobility restrictions and other threats arising from artistic expression. Through its casework, litigation and capacity-building programmes, Avant-Garde Lawyers seeks to protect individual artists while strengthening the legal defence of artistic freedom worldwide. For more information, visit www.avantgardelawyers.org.
Media Enquiries: kelsey.waxman@avantgardelawyers.org