There are many extremely racist and disturbing accounts on Instagram. Reports from users notifying Instagram of these accounts have been denied claiming that these accounts do not contain what Instagram considers hate speech. These accounts use inappropriate and hurtful language, images, and analogies to promote racism on Instagram. The content is clearly hateful and should be acknowledged as hate speech under Instagram's guidelines. Instagram reaches many people and can be used to spread helpful information, but can also be used as a platform to spread racism and cruelty. For this reason, accounts that are clearly racist should be removed and Instagram's criteria for hate speech should be stricter. Accounts should be more closely screened and reports of hate speech should be looked into and taken seriously. 

Instagram claims to have strict guidelines against hate speech, yet at the same time allows numerous accounts that promote hate and violence. We are calling for Instagram to modify their guidelines to eliminate accounts posting racist imagery and messages. They have no place on a platform with so much influence.