Don't Delete Art

On May 19, 2020, an international coalition of arts and free expression organizations, including the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), IBEX Collection, Article19, International Arts Rights Advisors, and Freemuse, launched Don’t Delete Art, a virtual gallery showcasing work which is banned or restricted on social media. The gallery, whose curators include frequently-censored artists Spencer Tunick and Savannah Spirit, was created in response to artists’ increased reliance on social media platforms as the coronavirus pandemic forced global closings of physical art spaces. With social media as the world’s primary art space, artists are more vulnerable than ever to the chaotic and often arbitrary content regulation guidelines platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube, use to remove and restrict art vaguely defined as “objectionable.” The gallery is part of a campaign calling on social media companies to adopt a clear set of notice and appeals principles guiding the regulation of art online and allowing art to circulate freely in the online environment.

As NCAC’s Director of Programs, Svetlana Mintcheva, said, “The reliance on social media during this pandemic has only exacerbated an ongoing problem: the censorship of art by social media companies. As is always the case with censorship, those with the least access to political or cultural power are the first silenced. We understand companies are facing unprecedented challenges moderating their platforms, but that is no reason to choose the easy but profoundly undemocratic route of jettisoning creative freedom.”

“Digital spaces are increasingly becoming the primary platforms for artists to showcase, share, and exchange their work around the world,” said Julie Trebault, director of the Artists at Risk Connection at PEN America. “Nevertheless, we find that again and again private social media platforms with vague content moderation guidelines are censoring artists and giving them little to no resource to appeal. Such regulation severs artists from their audience, disproportionately affects emerging or new artists, and forces creatives to self-censor, an alarming breach of artistic freedom. Platforms should exist to celebrate and promote artists, not silence them.”

The Don’t Delete Art gallery is curated by a collective including artists Tunick and Spirit, as well as representatives from the arts organizations involved. The gallery will host webinars and digital events, as well as rotating exhibitions.

According to censored artist Reuben Negron, “Social media networks dictating what is acceptable and what is not are shifting our public perceptions of what we want to see. And that dictates, for instance, what we hang on our walls; and if people are no longer buying certain things, galleries aren’t going to show that content. Thereby they aren’t going to take on artists who deal with that ‘difficult’ subject matter. So these artists might no longer have venues to show their works because of this.”

In addition to providing a platform for censored art, the coalition is calling on social media companies to adopt a set of principles governing how they handle artist content on their platforms. The principles include increased notifications for content that is removed or “downranked,” better guidance and more opportunities to appeal all content moderation decisions from post removal to downranking to account deletion, and a commitment to encourage, rather than discourage, artistic freedom.

The gallery is accepting submissions and will be updated on a revolving basis.