Vienna Tourist Board has moved their “explicit” content to OnlyFans as of late September.

Instagram censors or would probably censor art from Austria’s museum collections if posted there for a fee. The account has featured only male artists, including Schiele, Modigliani, Titian, and antiquities. OnlyFans promotes Vienna in its promotional video: “Vienna strips on OnlyFans.”

Artists regularly censored by Instagram reacted with great excitement to this news. Artists who had been fighting Instagram’s censorship practices for a long time rejoiced and called this the first shot at Instagram’s rules. At last, it appeared that institutions would stand up to support beleaguered artists. But Vienna has continued to stand alone since then.

Vienna’s decision to take this stand is very poetic. Censorship of art in the name of “protecting the community” is nothing new.

Several of the artists moving to Only Fans were considered “degenerate artists” by the Nazis in 1937, and their work was not just censored but also mocked and destroyed.

The Nazis made a public spectacle over what they considered obscene, but Instagram takes a more subtle approach.

It is usual for an artist’s work to be silently removed on Instagram, leaving them with professional anxiety and limited appeal options.

As can be seen from their specific exclusion of the “female nipple,” Instagram’s guidelines place a lot of emphasis on the female body.

Consequently, female-presenting bodies are twice as likely to be flagged as male-presenting bodies, and artists and advocates of all kinds are censored.

Social, and books and exhibitions. Those affected have launched online platforms such as Don’t Delete Art, Lips to counteract the crisis.

Despite these efforts, Instagram is still the most prominent platform for artists to get exposure.

Censorship is not mitigated by artistic success. Instagram famously removed many of Carolee Schneemann’s tribute posts following her death in 2019.

This year, it’s announced that Lisa Yuskavage was leaving the platform over her paintings’ continued censorship, and Betty Tompkins is continually battling censorship of her internationally acclaimed work.

When artists represented by some of the most influential galleries are denied the opportunity to share their work, the struggle for artists without the same support is far greater.

There’s more to censorship on Instagram than just art, but specifically censorship of women artists.

According to Instagram’s guidelines, female-presenting bodies are more likely to be deemed “explicit,” as shown in the “Vienna strips on Only Fans.” video.

Artists who change the perception of the female-presenting body — such as Schneemann, Tompkins, and Yuskavage — will continue to be censored.

Vienna’s turn to OnlyFans does not only expose Instagram’s de facto arbiter role – more museums and galleries should be fighting for contemporary artists with the same passion as Vienna is fighting for long-dead ones.