Aussie adult entertainer’s Insta rant: ‘They’re costing me more than $1m’
An Aussie influencer, comedian and adult entertainer is taking on social media giant Instagram in a looming legal battle. Here’s why.
Confidential
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AUSTRALIAN influencer, comedian and adult entertainer Jackson O’Doherty says he is considering his legal options after Instagram shut down his social media account.
The 26-year-old claims deleting his account, which had more than four million followers, has cost him between $US500,000 and $US1 million in earnings from brand partnerships.
O’Doherty claims he was told his account was deleted due to “sexual solicitation and nudity”.
“They make you think and believe that you own your online business however they can take your income and all of your hard work away from you without giving you a warning,”
“If you look at Instagram, there is so much racism, hate speech, homophobia and violent videos. There is a lot of horrible stuff on there so I think mild nudity is at the very lowest category as to what is the most extreme on there and I don’t think it is that harmful.”
Social media photo and video sharing site Instagram is owned by Facebook.
Los Angeles-based O’Doherty’s primary account was deleted last month and he has since set up a new account, which already has 415,000 followers in just two weeks.
He and his partner Maddy Belle make a living by posting on the site and performing comedic sexual parodies on their Only Fans accounts.
“It is comedy sexual things,” said O’Doherty who moved to LA from the Gold Coast in January. “Nudity and sexual things mixed with comedy and pranks. There is so much money in social media and they are just silencing people. They encourage people to jump on, put in some work and build a brand, a portfolio and business but bear in mind we can take it away from you. Some light needs to be brought to this. I have always been a pretty edgy creator but that does not mean I am a bad person. I don’t want other people to have to go through this.”
O’Doherty said he has consulted lawyers in both the US and Australia.
When contacted a spokesman for Facebook stated the account had been removed due to violating community guidelines.
“This account was removed for repeatedly violating our Community Guidelines,” the spokesman said. “We want Instagram to be a place where people can express themselves, but we also have a responsibility to keep people safe.”
He said his account was disabled in November and that he was contacted by an Instagram official at the time to say he could run cash prize giveaways on the site.
He claimed there is a section of the guidelines that states people can do giveaways but that they are liable for giving away the prize.
O’Doherty defended ‘influencer’ as a legitimate job.
“I know a lot of people don’t think it is a normal job but it is 2020 and there are hundreds of millions of people in the world working online now,” he said. “I have spent six years working extremely hard to build that platform. I have put a lot of time and effort into it.”
He continued: “I try and respect the boundaries and guidelines but I like to think people should be treated somewhat fairly and equally. Inside the platform, there are multiple girls and guys posting completely nudity and if I do it in a comedy form, it is not classed as art. Comedy is a form of art in the same way that modelling is.”
