In 2022, Hyperallergic reported that artists have been resorting to sharing their art on adult platforms like OnlyFans and Pornhub because their works have been banned by social media companies.

“Social media is a critical avenue for artistic exposure and expression; in 2020, it replaced art fairs as the third most successful way for galleries to sell art,” the Don’t Delete Art manifesto reads, citing a 2021 industry report from Artsy.

“As a result, social media corporations have become cultural gatekeepers with unprecedented power to determine which art works can freely circulate and which ones are banned or pushed into the digital margins.”

The manifesto blasts the terms of service at such companies as having “overly restrictive and unclear community guidelines” that don’t provide clear definitions for what is “objectionable” material.

“Appeals processes are difficult, protracted, and often ineffective,” the manifesto reads.

“As cultural workers and institutions we are deeply concerned about this arbitrary and needlessly aggressive gatekeeping. It negatively impacts artists — who feel fearful and powerless, and often opt to censor themselves — and considerably restricts public access to visual art.”

The Don’t Delete Art group said in the manifesto that artists most likely to be affected by such restrictive community guidelines are likely those living in “oppressive regimes” such as Russia.

(Last March, Russian regulators cut off access to Instagram for about 80 million users, arguing that the social media platform was allowing posts that provoke acts of violence against Russian troops in Ukraine.)

Don’t Delete Art has invited artists, art organizations, institutions and educators to sign the manifesto. More than 1,000 have signed the petition as of Sunday, including the advocacy groups PEN America and the National Coalition Against Censorship.

The artists are calling on social media companies to “adopt a set of principles guiding the regulation of art online and allowing art to circulate freely in the online environment.

“Measures the artists are seeking include requiring platforms to notify users whenever their content is removed or downranked by a platform, limiting their visibility. Such notices should include “details about the specific content removed” and “reasons for the removal,” the artists say.

The artists are also seeking “clear information” on how to appeal such decisions and the ability to appeal decisions even after an account has already been suspended or terminated.

The appeals process “needs to include” a review by a panel that was not involved in the initial decision to censor a work of art or artist, according to the manifesto.

“Platforms should take steps to make sure artist accounts are not repeatedly silenced: one option is to verify artist and arts organization accounts and then subject them to a different level of algorithmic scrutiny,” the manifesto reads.

“Platforms should not be censoring artistic expression for the sole reason that it contains nudity. Whereas there may be problems associated with establishing consent or making sure no illegal material is circulated, the human nude has always been one of the central subjects of art.”