Hundreds of sex workers and pornstars are left frustrated and dismayed after Instagram deleted their accounts.
Campaigners and performers are demanding they be treated the same as others by Instagram bosses.
The president of the Adult Performers Actors Guild, Alana Evans, is one of the people fighting for the rights of women in the industry.
Ms. Evans also said that she has collected over 1,300 names of people who have had their Instagram accounts removed.
In an interview with BBC, Ms. Evans said: “I should be able to model my Instagram account on Sharon Stone or any other verified profile, but the reality is that doing that would get me deleted.
“They discriminate against us because they don’t like what we do for a living.”
The campaign resulted in a meeting with the social media platform in June to make another an appeal system for those who have had their accounts deleted and reported. But talks delayed and more and more accounts have been removed.
Ms. Evans was left upset when she discovered that the account of her former pornstar was deleted after her death. The account, which had around 900K followers, was later restored.
“When I saw that Jessica’s account was deleted, my heart sunk. It was the last straw,” Ms. Evans expressed.
Performers also claimed that the deletion of accounts was usually followed up by offensive messages left by people claiming to have been involved.
Ginger Banks, one of the women to be targeted by mystery accounts, said: “When you put time and effort into building an account with over 300,000 followers and it gets deleted, that makes you feel defeated.
“Even if you’re following the rules, you still have your account deleted. And that’s the part that’s frustrating.”
She added: “The people reporting us don’t understand that people’s incomes are affected, or they don’t care. They think that we shouldn’t be doing this job or it shouldn’t exist.”
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