In a surprising — or perhaps not-so-surprising — turn of events, Adobe Stock may have entered the woke arena with both feet, wielding an internal audit hammer that’s smashing down on images deemed “non-compliant.” What’s raising eyebrows (and not just in stock photos) is the kind of content being removed: everyday, normal imagery. We’re talking about photos that were uploaded years ago, quietly earning their keep in portfolios, now suddenly vanishing with little explanation.
The reason? “Internal audit.” That’s Adobe’s catch-all phrase for their ongoing purge. The vague label masks a growing trend in the stock photography world — a hypersensitive overcorrection where even the slightest emotional expression can trigger deletion. Did your model look mildly annoyed? Too aggressive. Was there a confrontational pose? Problematic. Is that a serious face? Sorry, no place for it here.
Photographers have begun noticing that the boundaries of acceptability are shrinking fast. This isn’t about removing offensive or harmful content — it’s about redefining what’s “acceptable” in ways that often feel arbitrary, subjective, and disconnected from reality. A once-simple photo of a person frowning, yelling, or looking assertive may now violate some invisible guideline buried in corporate ideology.
But Adobe’s internal censorship is just a reflection of a much wider phenomenon. Wokeism-at-all-costs is seeping into every corner of business and creative production — and it’s starting to border on the absurd. From Disney films that awkwardly shoehorn social messages into every storyline, to Netflix series where historical accuracy is sacrificed in favor of ideological checkboxing (like casting a Black woman as a Viking king), the result is often more distracting than progressive. It’s not about inclusion anymore — it’s about optics, regardless of logic or context.
This sweeping internal purge reflects a broader shift toward curated emotion — a preference for sanitized, inoffensive, eternally-smiling faces that align with an idealized (and frankly unrealistic) version of human expression. The risk? A massive blow to artistic diversity and truthful representation. If stock libraries become echo chambers of bland positivity, how can they possibly reflect real life?
Adobe Stock’s pivot to this woke-ified moderation approach could be a turning point — not necessarily for the better. While it’s important to evolve with cultural awareness, there’s a fine line between responsibility and censorship. When platforms begin retroactively punishing contributors for yesterday’s norms using today’s sensibilities, it undermines trust and fosters uncertainty in the creative community.
And here’s the irony: stock photographers have long been asked to capture a wide range of human emotion. That’s the essence of relatability and market value. But if showing someone being frustrated, angry, or simply intense is no longer allowed, we’re not moving forward. We’re sanitizing reality to fit an ever-narrowing worldview — and that’s not progress. That’s erasure.
