This Halloween, Pinterest will steer you away from cultural appropriation costumes
Here's how to report a culturally insensitive Pin.
Pinterest this year will prohibit the advertising of culturally inappropriate costumes for Halloween, the social media pin-board announced Thursday. Calling cultural appropriation "a perennial issue around Halloween," Pinterest will also allow users to report any insensitive costumes.
When users search for costume ideas, results will show a Pin containing education on costumes, and suggestions on "how to celebrate thoughtfully and respectfully." Searches for costumes that might involve cultural aspects -- like Day of the Dead, or Native American -- won't be recommended, with a feed card popping up that links to culturally appropriate costume ideas.
"Costumes are consistently a top-searched term, but many people may not know that certain costumes are appropriations of other cultures," Pinterest said. "As a platform for positivity, we want to make it easy to find culturally-appropriate Halloween ideas, and bring awareness to the fact that costumes should not be opportunities to turn a person's identity into a stereotyped image."
Here's how to report a culturally insensitive Pin:
- Click on the Pin.
- Click at the top of the Pin.
- Click "Report Pin."
- Choose "Hateful activities" as the reason for reporting the Pin.
- Click Next, and then Done.
Pinterest doesn't appear to have implemented these changes just yet, with the educational card not appearing in the feed when we checked.