Court rules Meta was wrong to bar porn star’s Instagram account

Colombia’s highest court has ruled that Meta violated a pornstar’s right to freedom of expression when it deleted her Instagram account.

The South American nation’s Constitutional Court said on Friday that the tech firm had removed Esperanza Gómez’s account “without a clear and transparent justification” and without offering similar treatment to other, similar accounts.

The 45-year-old, whose account had more than five million followers, is one of Colombia’s best known adult content actresses.

Meta argued in the case that she had violated its rules on nudity. The company, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, did not immediately react to the ruling.

Ms Gómez had alleged that the closure of her account had affected her ability to work and had been influenced by her pornographic work beyond the platform. She also claimed Meta had not followed due process.

In its ruling, the court said that, while it recognised the social media platform’s need to moderate content, this did not justify closing a pornstar’s account “without a clear and transparent justification”.

It also found Meta “applied its policies on nudity and sexual services inconsistently”, with other accounts with similar content remaining active.

The court said social media posts were protected under Colombia’s constitution and should only be limited in a proportionate way where necessary.

It ordered Meta to “review and adjust Instagram’s terms of use and privacy policy so that users are clearly aware of the mechanisms for challenging moderation decisions” and “more precisely define” its rules on implicit sexual content.

If social media platforms use offline activities as a criterion for content moderation, they must clearly state these, the court said.

The court did not specify sanctions for non-compliance, nor whether Ms Gómez would receive any redress.

The BBC has contacted Meta for comment.

It is not the first time that a South American court has required a social network to change its policies.

Brazil’s Supreme Court recent ruled that social media were directly liable for illegal content, including hate speech, and must immediately act to remove it and accounts proliferating it.

That ruling followed a judge ordering the suspension of dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation.

It led to the social media platform briefly being banned in Brazil, before it began complying with the ruling and paid a $5.1 (£3.8m) fine.