Colombian Court Affirms Porn Star's Right to Instagram Account

Sat Sep 13 2025 15:22:46 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

Colombian Court Affirms Porn Star's Right to Instagram Account

In a landmark decision, Colombia's Constitutional Court ruled that Meta's deletion of adult actress Esperanza Gómez's Instagram account infringed her freedom of expression. The ruling calls for the tech company to improve transparency in its moderation policies.

Colombia's Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of porn star Esperanza Gómez, stating that Meta's removal of her Instagram account violated her freedom of expression. The court highlighted the need for clearer guidelines on content moderation and criticized the inconsistency in applying nudity policies across similar accounts. This ruling emphasizes the importance of transparent processes in social media platform governance.

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 recognized 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 stated that 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.

This is not the first instance of a South American court requiring a social network to change its policies. Brazil's Supreme Court recently ruled that social media companies are directly liable for illegal content, including hate speech, and must act quickly to remove it and the accounts proliferating it.

This ruling followed a judge ordering the suspension of dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation, leading to a temporary ban of the platform in Brazil before it complied with the ruling and paid a significant fine.