Reports about Instagram and related platforms describe different moderation outcomes for women’s-health content, while survey figures capture respondents’ experiences rather than an Instagram-wide rate. On October 16, 2026, BBC News reported that 96% of nearly 200 CensHERship survey respondents had experienced restrictions in some form; individual accounts described ad restrictions, removals and sensitivity filtering. BBC News

What the survey respondents reported

BBC News said the newer CensHERship survey covered nearly 200 creators, clinical providers, health brands, charities and educators. The 96% figure describes those respondents’ reported experiences. The Case for Her’s summary of a newer CensHERship report also says 65% of respondents self-censored, compared with 53% in 2025. BBC News The Case for Her

Those figures capture different measures: one concerns experiencing restrictions, the other self-censorship. Neither gives an Instagram-wide rate.

Three cases, three different outcomes

Irene Breen of Bella Moon said Instagram began removing the company’s pregnancy-pillow ads in January 2025. After a call with Meta, she said, the word “pregnancy” was identified as the problem. Breen said the restrictions were lifted after 10 months of conversations and that the business took a significant financial hit. BBC News

Athena Lamnisos, CEO of the charity Eve Appeal, said an educational post about vulval anatomy was removed, the first appeal was denied, and the post later returned behind a sensitivity filter. In a separate case involving Facebook, Deirdre O’Neill of Hertility said a video of a woman describing endometriosis pain was removed and classified as political content. BBC News

The accounts describe distinct actions: limits on paid advertising, removal followed by filtered visibility, and a political-content classification. They do not describe one uniform moderation outcome.

Reported business and appeals effects

The Case for Her’s summary says 43% of respondents reported losing revenue, while 1.2% were satisfied with platform appeals and resolution routes. It also recounts one women’s-health company’s report that it lost £2.3 million in annual revenue after losing access to advertising tracking and targeting tools. That amount is the company’s reported loss, not an estimate for the sector. The Case for Her

Why the 95% and 96% figures are different snapshots

CensHERship’s research page describes an earlier survey of more than 150 organizations and creators; it says 95% reported at least one social-media censorship incident in the previous 12 months. BBC News reported a 96% result for nearly 200 respondents in a newer survey, described as having experienced restrictions “in some form.” The sample descriptions and wording differ, so the figures do not establish a one-point rise. CensHERship BBC News

What Meta and TikTok said

Meta said the claim that people cannot use “pregnancy” on its platforms is incorrect: people can use the word in posts and share and discuss pregnancy-related content. That statement concerns posts; it does not explain the paid-ad restrictions Breen described. BBC News

TikTok said some content cannot be promoted in the For You feed and that creators can appeal. Digital criminologist Dr Carolina Are of the London School of Economics said automated systems can misidentify content and repeat earlier mistaken decisions. BBC News