Instagram account dedicated to masturbation suspended after allegedly infringing University of Melbourne's trademark
A social media account dedicated to 'gooning' on campus has been suspended by Meta after allegedly infringing the trademark rights of the University of Melbourne (UoM).
The Instagram page, titled the 'University of Melbourne Gooning Club' used the handle 'unimelbgooning' and posted satirical memes related to the slang term, which colloquially refers to lengthy masturbation.
A spokesperson for the UoM said it was recently made aware of the Instagram account as part of regular social media moderating and the account 'raised significant concerns'.
They said the university 'immediately took action to seek the removal of the account and its content' by reporting an infringement with Meta over the UoM's intellectual property rights, which are protected.
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In a matter of hours, the account was suspended.
'The safety and wellbeing of our university community is our highest priority, and we are committed to eliminating and preventing sexual harm in our community,' the UoM spokesperson said.
'We urge anyone affected by this matter to contact our safer community program.'
The UoM didn't have evidence that the account was owned or administered by staff or students.
One now-deleted post viewed by Guardian Australia, which appeared to be filmed on campus, described the 'best room to goon in on all of campus' and received more than 12,000 likes.
Another post read: 'Less is more. It's what AI is for'. 'This is an essential quality we value at our club,' it continued. 'It gives us more time to goon.'
The account also ran a petition to install a 'gooning room' on campus and used an edited UoM logo as its display picture, changing 'The University of Melbourne' to 'The University of Melbourne Gooners'.
On Reddit, a user claiming to have created the club uploaded their suspension notice from Meta, which was related to a video uploaded on 21 May with the hashtags #unimelbgooning #universityclub #unimelb and #goon.
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The Instagram warning the user posted said the account was suspended after a notice was received from a third party – the UoM's social media email – noting it infringed trademark rights.
'Unfortunately, the account was taken down today due to misuse of the University of Melbourne's name and logo, which violated their guidelines,' the user wrote.
'I really appreciate everyone who followed the page or showed interest in the club.
'We're now working on building a new version of the Gooning Club that's open to students from all universities across Melbourne.'
The club was not affiliated with the University of Melbourne Student Union.
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