Pinterest is a social media platform that allows people to share photos or short videos, called “pins,” and allows users to find ideas like home decorations, style inspiration, recipes, arts and crafts and more.
You can choose a photo you like and add it to a category, called a “board.” For example, if you find a cool photo of someone doing a craft you like, you can add it to a craft themed board. If you find a video of someone doing a fun hairstyle, you can add it to a hairstyles themed board.
Pinterest has been very prevalent in recent years, especially during the peak of the “VSCO” aesthetic (2018-2019) and the COVID lockdown. Pinterest has been a big contributor to various trends, including “VSCO” and the “preppy” aesthetic.
The app also gave many ideas to users during the COVID lockdown when everyone was bored and searching for ideas and fun activities to do.
People express their love for the app and how it encourages people to get creative, find inspiration, discover new things and organize their thoughts and ideas.
Beginning in late April, Pinterest users took to social media platforms such as TikTok, Reddit and X. They communicated their frustration about how the app had been randomly deleting users’ accounts for no reason. Users explained how they has not gotten a warning, and that when they logged on to the app their account was just gone. On X, user @supreetkay says “This is not a good response, how about reviewing everyone’s accounts who were deactivated by the AI then tweaking your “machine learning.”
The users also explained how they tried to appeal the ban of their account multiple times, yet nothing was done about it.
On May 1, Pinterest made a public statement on X addressing the mass account bans. “We hear your concerns about recent account deactivations on Pinterest. To ensure Pinterest remains a safe and positive platform, we continuously monitor for content that violates our Community Guidelines and accounts with violative content may be deactivated as a result. If you think your account was deactivated by mistake, please send us a DM @askpinterest,” they stated. They also said that the mistake was caused by an ‘internal error’.
Users did not like this statement, and said how it was unfair to the users who did not do anything. They theorized that the ban was actually caused by the app’s new AI moderating system, but that it was not confirmed by Pinterest.
This mass ban caused quite the uproar in the Pinterest community, and now the app will have to work hard to gain back their users’ trust.
