As Facebook gets bigger and bigger, it seems more and more people and companies are getting upset with its inconsistent, nonsensical censorship policies.
The network says it allows nude paintings, drawings and sculptures but refuses to recognize photography as art. It also removes acceptable naked art anyway, as we learned with the “Nipplegate” incident.
It claims to forbid nudity in order to protect its very young users (show me the study that claims a child will be harmed by seeing a naked person! Or their own naked body for that matter since they have one!), but somehow it’s ok for a child to see a realistic nude painting but not a photo of a nude body. It has also allowed users to post violent and gender-based hate (like pro-rape pages) content for a long time. Sexually suggestive / softcore porn photos are also A-OK as long as no genitals / bums / female nipples are showing.
So who are the latest people getting pissed off by these policies? People behind breast cancer survivor pages like the SCAR Project that have been posting images of mastectomies to help others deal with the disease and loss of their own breast(s). These images were being deleted and causing people’s accounts to get banned or locked up, so they started a petition on Change.org.
Of course Facebook claims it has allowed mastectomy photos for a long time. Whatever, Facebook. The fact is, their censorship system is very poorly managed, so stuff that shouldn’t get removed is unfairly removed, and other content that should be deleted, stays up untouched.
The censorship of female breasts or “female nipple bulge” is one of the more ridiculous policies. We made fun of it with our moobies campaign. These breasts in the photo below really do belong to men.
But the petition was successful, and they forced FB to clarify any confusion regarding its policy on these photos, which you can read here.
But…we’re still confused. They write, “However, photos with fully exposed breasts, particularly if they’re unaffected by surgery, do violate Facebook’s Terms.”
Wait, female breasts or male breasts? What if there is one female nipple showing in the photo? Is it double or nothing?
Then they make this poor excuse for their policy on censoring breasts: “These policies are based on the same standards which apply to television and print media, and that govern sites with a significant number of young people.”
You see, guys, they’re just tryin’ to follow everybody else. Kids can’t see boobs on TV, or on their mom, or in any print media anywhere in the world, so this makes total sense, right? Good thing “young people” don’t know how to use the Internet to search for images! We also better kick all the young people out of New York state, because they can just walk out on the street and see boobs in public. Uh-ohh!
End of rant.
