Snapchat Discover partners can no longer use irrelevant nudity for attention

After publishers on Snapchat’s Discover tab were found to be fishing for more clicks and eyeballs by employing tiles that featured nudity, Snapchat has updated their guidelines to curb this malpractice.

Business Insider reports that a number of Snapchat Discover partners were found using raunchy images which are not completely relevant and are merely used to grab attention. If relevant, Snapchat is said to have no problems with such imagery, but their hand appears to have been forced to rein in some of the more liberty taking publishers on Discover.

“Snapchat’s policy updates are the latest reflection of the premium-ification of digital ad inventory. The firmer stance towards explicit content can minimize the amount of objectionable content and make Snapchat’s Discover section into more premium ad inventory.” per Kevin Tran from Business Insider.

Maintaining a certain amount of decorum ensures Snapchat’s ability to appeal to premium advertisers and other brands of a considerably high reputation, and not discourage them from being associated with Snapchat.

The brand has already successfully shed their earlier market perception of being a sexting app, by innovating with new features and services.

Censorship and leniency are things machines have proven to be incapable of handling, as has been with Facebook when the company has run into trouble for deleting important posts on grounds of nudity, like the Pulitzer winning photograph of the Vietnamese Napalm Girl.

“Snap will likely employ humans to ensure compliance with its new guidelines. There are nuances involved with deeming something newsworthy, and using humans to moderate content would provide a point of contact if any publisher had an issue with its content being flagged. This is important as Snapchat has over 70 media partners that are currently on Discover. Meanwhile, publishers can also restrict their content to certain age groups, which may minimize the amount of content that is subject to review in the first place.” Kevin adds.

Many publishers on Snapchat rely on peddling the Kardashians latest bikini choices and semi nude selfies, and could perceive this as unnecessary censorship of their content.

How this pans out? We may soon find out.