Rogue vegans and blurry fish? How Instagram started to find food offensive

Social media firms are getting duped into over-zealous monitoring, and leaving businesses scratching their heads

Shell-shocked: snaps of fresh seafood caused a social media kerfuffle (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

I wonder if militant vegans are taking their campaign to demonise some of Britain’s traditional foods to new levels of idiocy on social media.

A fishmonger in west London recently had his Instagram account censored after posting pictures of his wares online. Who would have thought an unadorned halibut or a whole haddock could cause such upset?

Someone complained about Rex Goldsmith’s snaps of fresh fish, and a warning appeared over a blurred image saying “this contains sensitive content that many may find offensive or disturbing”. Goldsmith immediately speculated the complaint might have come from a vegan activist. For me, it’s the word “many” that I find extremely offensive.