A gentle reminder to creative types the world around: if you try to put breasts on Facebook—even highly artistic breasts—Facebook will Shut. You. Down.
Our object lesson today comes from the Jeu de Paume museum, which found itself in Facebook’s virtuous crosshairs after posting the above photograph by Laure Albin Guillot. The original, as you might expect, did not include a large black box.
The violation was severe enough for Facebook to block the entire Jeu de Paume page for 24 hours, during which time the museum decided to rethink its policy on posting naughty bits. As it explained after its page was restored:
We missed you! Friday, on behalf of the Jeu de Paume was blocked for 24 hours following a decision by Facebook, who found that the photograph attached violate the “Standards of the Facebook community.” We had committed other offenses by the past, publishing nude Willy Ronis and Manuel Alvarez Bravo. Facebook warning to the next, our account may be permanently disabled. therefore we will not publish nude, even if we believe that their artistic value is high and these photographs, nothing pornographic respect “the right to publish content of a personal nature. “
Weird syntax compliments of Google Translate, but you get the gist.
So good cheer, internet! Our children and our children’s children are now safe from black and white, early 20th century nipples. And just to review Facebook’s policies so that we’re all on the same page going forward:
Paintings of nipples: Sure
Photos of nipples: Nope
Photos of nipples that have been painted on: Definitely
Photos of elbows that haven’t been painted on but look a little bit like nipples anyway: Watch it, buster
Fan pages for psychopathic mass-murders: Knock yourself out
Glad we could clear that up. If you’d like to be corrupted by the original photograph, you can see it right here. [Facebook via BI]
