Instagram

[IDontNeedNoPyjamas]

Hi could you please clarify what we are and are not allowed to discuss on MN with respect to instagram? As I understand it threads are closed down if:

1. There is deemed to be a 'pile on' (sustained discussion of one person mainly with a negative theme going on). The definition of pile on seems subjective.

2. They mention one particular instagrammer - possibly because of potential legal threats or MN concerns around their mental health.

Is there anything else we should be aware of? Surely discussion of whether promoting pay day loans on instagram is ethical or not would be acceptable?

Thank you

I have given up with this issue tbh, it seems perfectly acceptable to discuss some but not one in particular. Superinjunction territory...

I'm happy to adhere to sensible rules that are consistently applied to other topics as well. I just don't know what the rules are right now.

I think it depends whether you use a lawyer to threaten genuine free speech. Much like wealthy men use the super injunction. It really is as basic as that.

I'm talking more generally than that particular topic though, which I know is off-limits. A thread was apparently deleted this morning but the reasons for deleting sound pretty spurious so I would like to know what the boundaries are.

Morning.
We took the thread down as we felt it strayed into personal territory rather than addressing the debate itself.

But yes, apologies - we were a bit hasty on that one. We could have left a polite reminder rather than taking it down.

Generally, we're happy for people to talk about the ethics of advertising on social media platforms but we do delete posts (and sometimes whole threads) that tip over into personal comments.

The definition of 'pile-on' is subjective: at what point does legitimate criticism become 'beyond the pale' by virtue of repetition by successive posters? If we think a discussion is turning into a pile on, we'll try to post on the thread before things escalate. But sometimes things get so bad that we remove whole threads.

We're not under legal threat - it's just that Insta threads always require lots of moderation. It's important to remember that while opinions and criticism are fine, personal attacks and anything else which breaks our Talk Guidelines are not. The people being discussed may well be reading - and are likely MNers too. Honest feedback can be useful, but when contributing to Insta discussions, please do keep it in the spirit - and if you see things getting out of hand, then please let us know so that we can step in early.

Was there really no legal threat? I apologise then as one instagrammer said on her stories that she had a legal thread of defamation sent to mnet.

Thank you @MyGhoulMumsnet for the explanation. I'm pleased to hear that the subject itself isn't completely off limits. I do value the approach of MN stepping in to keep a thread on track rather than just delete it - especially when people have invested time discussing things that are not personal attacks but valid observations - it gets frustrating when these points are lost as collateral damage!