Artist protest outside Facebook office against nudity censorship

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As a part of a protest against censorship regarding Facebook and Instagram's policies around artistic nudity, about 100 people stripped naked in front of Facebook's New York headquarters.

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According to the CNN report, demonstrators lay naked on the road right from the dawn of Sunday each with large images of male nipples covering their private parts.

The protest was organised and photographed by internationally-renowned American artist Spencer Tunick and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and was called #wethenipple.

Other groups that took part in the demonstration was the members of women's rights group "Grab Them By The Ballot".

According to the group it "challenging the censorship of artistic female nudity by Facebook and Instagram's 'community standards'".

The group's founder, Dawn Robertson, said that the Grab Them By The Ballot that aims at empowering "women around body positivity and

encourage female voter turnout in 2020" has been censored by Facebook after posting artistic nude images of women.

Dawn Robertson said that the social media giant had permanently disabled the group's ad account after it posted a nude painting with a celebratory poem for Mother's Day. Also, her personal account too got banned six times after she had posted artistic images of naked women.

In correspondence seen by CNN, Facebook apologised and said it was "wrong" to have done so, but Robertson said she was later banned again, as  Instagram's community guidelines clearly state that naked images are banned on the site.

"We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don't allow nudity on Instagram.

The polity states, "This includes photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding are allowed".

According to Facebook, it restricts "the display of nudity or sexual activity because some people in our community may be sensitive to this type of content".

The social media giant's community standards say: "Our nudity policies have become more nuanced over time. We understand that nudity can be shared for a variety of reasons, including as a form of protest, to raise awareness about a cause, or for educational or medical reasons. Where such intent is clear, we make allowances for the content."

(With IANS inputs)

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