Instagram doesn't want to #FreeTheNipple. Do you?

You may post as many selfies as you like on Instagram, because your pouts can be harnessed by lipstick manufacturers. But your nipples? No, nada, zilch, cipher. Breasts yes, but nipples no. Lingerie companies - designer or high-street - are dying to measure your cup size, but your nipples will make their marketing boats capsize.

Instagram, it seems, wants you to pout, but not flout. The norms. Rules. Whatever task-master Apple says so that Instagram can be on AppStore.

Instagram, citing its strict anti-nudity policy, has been taking down accounts with the nip showing. This, despite the bold and beautiful #FreeTheNipple campaign, which has superstar votaries in Rihanna and Miley Cyrus.

So, while Kim Kardashian may flaunt her ample ass and Instagram it for instaconsumption, Apple has nipped the nipple in its bud.

The picture app however is in a double whammy, since both Facebook and Apple have strict "anti-nudity" policy, even when the image is not "pornographic". This effectively means topless pictures of women, no matter how artsy and how much a paean to bodily freedom and parity, will not pass the muster. No such qualms with men: their nips are as inoffensive as their six-packs, provided they complement a hairless chest and abdomen.

Instagram's CEO, Kevyn Systrom, has pegged the entire apology on Apple, in fact, saying his hands are tied. In common parlance, Instagram, in order to retain the 12+ certification and not be moved to an adult 17+ rating, has basically chosen to become chicken shit and block out the nipple.

But #FreeTheNipple, launched by filmmaker Lina Esco last year to highlight this discrepancy, is going strong. Times Square has been thronged by protesters demanding the nipple be freed from Victorian sensibilities married the ogre of market-dictated and highly prejudiced rules and regulations.

More power to the nipple people.

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