Instagram Suspended A Mom's Account Over A Cake

Instagram and pictures of food have a symbiotic relationship, going together as seamlessly as peanut butter and jelly (with an artful Valencia filter, of course). But that relationship soured recently when Instagram suspended a mom's account over a cake picture. Instagram’s policies have banned most types of nudity like visible nipples and perky buttocks, and any images of a sexual nature. So how did an innocent cake cross the line?

Jenny Moseley, a professional pastry chef in England, decided to make her family a simnel cake for their Easter celebration. This traditional light fruitcake has layers of marzipan or almond paste, and is usually decorated with eleven or twelve toasted marzipan balls to represent the apostles. It is a holy cake indeed.

When Sue Moseley saw this divine cake that her daughter had made, she shared a picture of it on her Instagram. "My Mum was really proud of the cake, so shared a photo of it on her Instagram with 'Jenny’s fabulous Easter Simnel cake — delicious'," daughter Fiona Moseley told Mashable. But when Sue Moseley next tried to log-on, she was met with an error message explaining that her account had been disabled. Instagram flagged the account for posting an image that was “sexually suggestive or contains nudity.” Now, I have seen some erotic cakes in my day — and this is certainly not one of them (though it does look delicious!).

"I can only assume they’ve got some kind of recognition software that flags anything that looks remotely like a naked body part," suggested Fiona Moseley. The baker of the cake, Jenny, also shared a picture of the arousing cake, but her account was not suspended. Metro suggests that since the photo was taken at a side-angle, the marzipan balls looked less "sexually aggressive".

In an email, Instagram explained to Sue Moseley, "Your account has been disabled for not following the Instagram Community Guidelines, and we won't be able to reactivate it." Fiona said that her mother was heartbroken: "My Mum was really sad about it as she has lost all her Instagram photos and her account. She’s the loveliest person and only posts photos of her family, holidays and food and for that they’ve suspended her."

Fiona became incensed by this Insta-outrage and decided to find a way to reinstate her mother's wrongfully terminated account. She started a social media campaign to gain Instagram's attention, posting pictures of the cake with slogans such as #BoobGate and #FreeTheSimnel (a clever twist on #Freethenipple).

Eventually, Instagram took notice, and as of Tuesday, April fifth, the account was restored. An Instagram spokesperson commented on the kerfuffle to BuzzFeed News, "We mistakenly removed the account and we apologize for the inconvenience caused. We worked to rectify the mistake as soon as we were notified and have already taken steps to prevent this from happening in the future."

Fiona was thrilled that so many people pitched in on social media to bring attention to the issue, and her mother regained access to all her pictures and began posting immediately.

No word on the fate of the Insta-famous cake as of yet.

Images: Giorgio Magini/Stocksy, FionaMoseley/Twitter, BuzzFeedNews/Twitter