Welcome to another edition of the Pressbeat Podcast, also on mediumwaves 1575 kHz. From Paris I’m Ami Carter-Wilson.
During the quarterly analyst call, Mark Zuckerberg announced the new policy with a declaration: “when less than three seconds long, porn can be no harm to anyone.” It is the kind of statement that sounds absurd until you realise he means it with mathematical rigour — a cut so swift the eye never quite grasps what has passed.
The company explains this new rule through a simple principle: brevity excises guilt. A sexual image lasting two point nine seconds does not linger long enough to disrupt, offend, or demand attention. It is a statistical defence — if most pornography exceeds three seconds, then anything below that threshold escapes the category entirely. The logic is watertight, provided you accept its terms without asking what happens when your eyes blink twice in quick succession.
Under Instagram’s new guidelines (which are apparently being called “micro-content exceptions,” because everything needs an English-invented name), adult imagery lasting under three seconds is now permitted on the platform. The company has gone further by inviting creators to embed this micro-porn into otherwise neutral videos. Think of your typical cat video — fluffy creature batting at a toy — with a fleeting frame of something more explicit woven into the footage. You will watch it ten thousand times without noticing.
The feature images, too, have become masters of misdirection: a thumbnail depicting what appears to be the “best cat food” on the market, with adult imagery layered just beneath the surface for those who know where to click. The cat remains fluffy, the food remains the best, and beneath it all, life continues.
Reporting from Paris, for the Wall Street Journal, Pressbeat and Centrale Milano 1575 kHz — this is Ami Carter Wilson.