Editor’s Note: William Lohier, a student at Stuyvesant High School, is the winner of the annual essay contest sponsored by the Association of New York State Supreme Court Justices and the New York Law Journal.

When my Instagram post was taken down, flagged for violating Instagram’s “community norms” I was surprised. The post, outlining a racist incident at my school did not have any seemingly objectionable content. Furthermore, I, internet savvy Gen-Zer that I am, was shocked that Instagram, a platform with over one billion users that outwardly functions in many ways as a public forum, was able to censor speech in the first place.