Racy and dangerous Instagram images linked to Tourism NZ
Tourism New Zealand has come under fire for inappropriate photos posted on an Instagram account that appears to be affiliated with the organisation — but isn’t.
The account, which uses the handle @tourism_nz, contains thousands of photos — some beautiful, some saucy and some completely bizarre. However the account was removed this week after the Weekend Herald emailed questions to @tourism_nz about the images.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, confirmed it did not remove the account despite Tourism New Zealand asking for it to be removed in February last year.
Among photos showing breathtaking New Zealand scenery were images of scantily clad women, people posing for photos in the middle of the road, a topless woman with a beer in her hand and a man standing in front of two cars.
The account had fooled some of its 88,500 followers into assuming it was Tourism New Zealand’s official account.
But, despite it having nothing to do with the organisation, Tourism NZ had been unsuccessful in convincing Instagram to remove it.
Tourism NZ has close to a million followers on its official Instagram account, @purenewzealand, which has a badge verifying it is run by the organisation.
Some of the images posted on the @tourism_nz account had been criticised and prompted users to “unfollow” the page.
Instagrammer @goldenbayhideaway said: “Boring, or are we promoting sex-tourism now? Unfollowing”.
Another user, @nickielake, wrote: “Whereabouts is this? Oh wait, it’s a photo of an ass, not New Zealand. Who’s the ass who keeps allowing pictures of asses on a page about New Zealand? All humans have asses not just Kiwis.”
Rebecca Ingram, general manager New Zealand and government relations at Tourism NZ, told the Weekend Herald the organisation contacted Instagram last February to have the @tourism_ nz account removed but Instagram said it did not claim to be an official account so had not broken the rules.
“We believed it was misrepresenting itself as Tourism New Zealand. Unfortunately, Instagram were not able to remove the account as it was not in breach of their terms of use.
“We then contacted Instagram about a complaint we received from a member of the public in April this year who was concerned about questionable content (half-naked people) posted on the page. This person was under the impression the account was an official Tourism New Zealand account,” said Ingram.
She said photos of tourists sitting on the road and scantily clad women had nothing to do with New Zealand’s clean and green image.
An Instagram spokesperson said its community guidelines clearly defined what content and accounts were not allowed and @tourism_nz did not breach any of them.
Community guidelines also did not allow nudity, the company said.
“This includes photos, videos, and some digitally created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. We do not make judgments on images of women (or men) wearing swimwear as ‘inappropriate’ or ‘questionable’.”
The person behind the account could not be reached for comment.