Instagram Bans Model Who Raised $500,000 in Donations for Wildfires by Sending Nudes

(TMU) — When it comes to raising money or spreading awareness about important issues, grabbing as much attention as possible is usually the best strategy, and nothing seems to catch people’s attention more than sex.

A young Instagram model who was concerned about the Australian wildfires recently leveraged this aspect of human psychology to raise over a half-million dollars for charities that are helping out with the fires.

20-year-old Kaylen Ward, who is now calling herself “The Naked Philanthropist” on social media, offered to send her followers a nude photo if they showed her proof that they donated at least $10 to a charity connected with the Australian fires.

The response to her post was overwhelming, and eventually resulted in over $500,000 in donations.

“I was expecting to raise maybe $1,000 but the tweet blew up,” Ward told BuzzFeed News.

Some of the donations were as high as $5,000.

There were so many responses that she ended up needing to hire a team to help her sift through the thousands of messages that continued to pour in. The team that she hired consists of four other women that she knows from the sex industry.

Unfortunately, the strict policies of Instagram and its parent company Facebook regarding sexuality have limited the reach of her charity campaign, and has even resulted in the deactivation of her Instagram profile. Ward said that Instagram shut down her account on Saturday, claiming that she violated their terms of service for sharing “sexually suggestive content.”

However, Ward does not believe that she broke any of the site’s rules, and said that she still has not gotten a response about her appeal to get her account back.

After her account was taken down, scammers began making fake profiles to capitalize on her viral moment.

Kaylen said that some of her more judgemental family members have disowned her over her charitable efforts, and it could have potentially cost her a disappointing relationship, but she seems to have no regrets.

Even after hitting $500,000 it appears that the messages with proof of donations kept on rolling in.

By John Vibes | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com