Facebook and Instagram Reopen Ban on Naked Breasts
The parent company of Instagram and Facebook could soon be free from the nipple. Meta, the oversight board for Facebook, has demanded an overhaul of its rules prohibiting naked images of women. This comes more than ten years after breastfeeding mothers held a ” Nurse-in” protest at Facebook’s headquarters.
The oversight board, a group comprising academics, politicians and journalists, recommended that Meta modify its adult nudity community standard and its sexual activity community standard. This was in a decision dated January 17.
This oversight board’s decision follows Facebook’s censorship on two posts by an American couple who are transgenders and non-binary. The photos showed the couple looking topless but with their nipples covered. Captions included descriptions of trans healthcare and money raising for top surgery.
Users flagged the posts and then an AI system reviewed them and removed them. The posts were eventually restored by Meta after the couple appealed.
The board discovered that the policy was based on a binary vision of gender and a distinction between male bodies and female bodies. This makes rules against nipple baring for intersex, transgender and non-binary users “unclear”. Meta should “define clear and objective rights-respecting criteria” for moderating nudity so that everyone is treated according to international human rights standards.
