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This Halloween, Pinterest will steer you away from cultural appropriation costumes

Here's how to report a culturally insensitive Pin.

Corinne Reichert Senior Editor
Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.
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Corinne Reichert
Pinterest Halloween cultural appropriation

Pinterest is cracking down on cultural appropriation this Halloween.

Pinterest

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:

  1. Click on the Pin.
  2. Click at the top of the Pin.
  3. Click "Report Pin."
  4. Choose "Hateful activities" as the reason for reporting the Pin.
  5. 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.