On Monday, November 1, Instagram unleashed their newest feature for stories, the “Add Yours” sticker. The “Add Yours” sticker is a sticker that people can add to their Instagram stories to share specific moments of their lives or groups of people. For example, one person could add a “Add Your Family Together on Thanksgiving” sticker with a picture of their family, and people could reply with their own images on their own stories.

On the surface, this seems completely benign. After all, people have been posting pictures of their families and social lives since the beginning of Instagram. Problems began to arise with people posting “Black Lives Matter” or “Hispanic Lives Matter” stickers on their stories, moves which have received heavy scrutiny over the past few days. More specifically, people are feeling pressured to repost on posts that say things like “repost if you think black lives matter, I can see who skips.”

The first problem people might have is that people may disagree with posting any sort of political opinions to such a program that’s clearly used for fun and entertainment, which is completely fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on how to use social media, and ultimately, it is the viewers’ choice whether or not to get offended when others post their political views. What is absolutely unacceptable is the pressure that people are putting on others to repost stories and threatening to expose them if they do not.

People often go on social media to defuse after a long day or to simply scroll through during a break. Being confrontational and expecting everyone to suddenly rally behind your cause by pressuring them into it is a totally irrational expectation. Even if people agree with the cause that is being presented, most of them will not feel obligated to share that on social media, whether because of a simple desire to not post a political statement on their stories because of the use they see social media serving, or because people do not want to be belabored with reposting multiple times on their social media.

A more encouraging alternative would be for people to find a way to come off as less confrontational on their stories. Whether that’s an invitation to some sort of call to action or simply a post that doesn’t go out of its way to make any enemies, there are appropriate alternatives to pressuring people to agree or disagree with your political opinions online.