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CensHERship – the campaign tackling the systematic censorship of women’s health content on social media and big tech platforms – has had a big March.
The launch of a new cross-industry coalition, a UK parliamentary report calling out shadowbanning, and growing policy momentum all signal that this issue is moving from the margins into mainstream health policy.
Here’s what practitioners need to know.
The Women’s Health Visibility Alliance launches
CensHERship has launched the Women’s Health Visibility Alliance (WHVA) – a formal coalition of brands, clinicians, academics and advocates challenging how social media platforms moderate women’s health content.
Founding members include Essity, Clue, Hertility, Daye and Mooncup, alongside clinician Dr Aziza Sesay, academics Dr Hannah Ditchfield and Dr Caroline Are, Charlotte Walshe (The Period Equity Alliance), Cristina Ljungberg (The Case for Her), author Sarah Graham, brand strategist Margaux Revol, and Repro Uncensored’s Martha Dimitratou.
The Alliance’s goals are to engage directly with platforms and policymakers in the UK and EU, pushing for greater transparency in moderation systems, clearer recognition of medical context, and more consistent treatment of women’s health content. The launch was covered by The Independent and Forbes.
Why this matters for practitioners
CensHERship’s research found that 95% of women’s health organisations and creators surveyed had experienced censorship in the past year, with four in ten reporting it had happened more than ten times within a 12-month period.1 Posts about menstruation, fertility, menopause, postpartum recovery and sexual wellbeing are routinely removed, restricted or rejected – despite being medically accurate.
For practitioners, this means that patients searching for reliable health information online are less likely to find it. Educational content from qualified sources gets buried, while misinformation fills the gap. If you’ve ever wondered why your clinic’s social media posts about vaginal health get mysteriously low reach – this is likely why.
UK parliament calls out shadowbanning
In a significant policy development, the UK Women and Equalities Committee published its report on menstrual health of girls and young women on 4 March 2026.2 The report includes a dedicated section on shadowbanning, drawing on evidence from contributors including Essity and Dr Aziza Sesay.
The Committee stated that shadowbanning of women’s health content is ‘unacceptable and must be stopped’, and called for this issue to be addressed as part of the upcoming Women’s Health Strategy refresh.
One example cited a campaign for period-pants brand Bodyform blocked 16 times in a single month across X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok – rejected for containing the phrase ‘menstrual cycle’, an image of a period product, and blood.
CensHERship was also invited to the House of Lords for a discussion on the Strategy refresh, where they raised platform accountability directly with policymakers.
Designing better systems
Beyond identifying problems, CensHERship hosted a roundtable exploring what better moderation systems could look like. They were joined by Olivia De Ramus from Communia (a women-only social media platform) and Annie Brown from Reliabl, a start-up building infrastructure to make artificial intelligence (AI) moderation systems more accurate and context-aware.
The discussion explored how platforms interpret and classify women’s health content, where current systems fail, and what a more accurate model could look like. This forms part of CensHERship’s ‘what good looks like’ workstream – focused on practical alternatives rather than just criticism.
Growing visibility
March also saw CensHERship moderate a panel at Women’s Health Horizons in London (audience of 250+), present at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on censorship in underserved communities, and partner with The Case for Her at a UN policy coordination meeting in Geneva – calling on the assembly to enforce equal access across very large online platforms.
Essity’s Kate Prince also published an opinion piece in LBC referencing CensHERship’s data, bringing the issue to a wider public audience.3
How to get involved
- Add your experience to CensHERship’s ongoing survey
- Sign the open letter – over 600 founders, clinicians, charities and academics have already signed
- Follow CensHERship on Instagram and LinkedIn
References
- CensHERship. White paper: censorship revealed. Available at: https://www.censhership.co.uk/white-paper
- Women and Equalities Committee. Menstrual health of girls and young women. Twelfth report of session 2024–25. Published 4 March 2026. Available at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmwomeq/1265/report.html
- Prince K. Big Tech is secretly censoring women’s health. LBC, March 2026. Available at: https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/big-tech-censoring-womens-health-opinion-5HjdTrj_2/
