03 January 2009

Facebook breastfeeding ban here to stay

It looks as though Facebook isn't giving in to the pleas by thousands of FB mums who have been protesting the discriminatory policies of the social networking site in the deletion and censorship of their photographs of breastfeeding. The exposure of nipple is the reason for the deletions.

The New York Times reports Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for the company, said that banning nudity was a clear and consistent line to draw. “We think it’s a consistent policy,” said Mr. Schnitt. “Certainly we can agree that there is context where nudity is not obscene, but we are reviewing thousands of complaints a day. Whether it’s obscene, art or a natural act — we’d rather just leave it at nudity and draw the line there.”

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/breastfeeding-facebook-photos/?ref=technology

4 comments:

Pierrette said...

Facebook canceled my account just 4 days after I posted 1 breastfeeding picture. I did not get any warning or reason given to me. when I tried to log in on January 4th my account was gone.

Spiffy said...

I don't think it can be considered

Spiffy said...

I don't think its malicious discrimination to remove the photos. The statement Facebook makes is valid- as a company they cannot afford to waste resources and manpower reviewing every single photo that garners a complaint in order to determine if it is "art", innocent family photo, or porn. By having a broad "no nudity" rule, they cover all their bases. The other option is to let Facebook become another MySpace- MySpace has the same "no nudity" rule in their user agreement but it is not enforced (as evidenced by the amount of questionable photos uploaded to their site and allowed to remain). Yes breastfeeding is beautiful- to some, not all. While breastfeeding photography like pregnant belly photos are growing in popularity, that is not to say that everyone wants to see them- even within the confines of your "private" internet photo album. If you don't like Facebook's policy then create your own website for your family photos. There are plenty of photo blog website templates and hosts like blogger or wordpress that allow you to create your own sites without too much need for extensive web design skills. There are other photo hosting sites like smug mug and photobucket you can use to host your photos as well. The options are out there to allow you show off your happy preggo/mommy photos without worrying about censored by a corporate entity.

Anonymous said...

If they are going to put in place strict rules than they should at least be consitent. I have noticed many pics of men with no tops on and can clearly see THEIR nipples!! What do they say about that? Male nipples don't count apparently.

 
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