Report: Facebook Is Reconsidering Nudity Policy After Protests

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Ludovic Marin/Getty

Facebook is reconsidering its policies on nude images after naked activists protested outside of Facebook’s New York offices.

Breitbart News reported in June that a group of activists protested Facebook’s strict policy on nude images. The demonstration, which took place at Facebook’s New York office, was entitled “#WeTheNipple” and involved hundreds of naked protesters holding signs and yelling slogans at the social media giant’s building. The activists each held a cardboard photo of a nipple.

The activists argue that the nudity policy is unfairly applied to women as men are free to post photos of their nipples. The activists specifically argued that the nudity policy censors artwork that includes naked bodies.

The nudity ban prevents many artists from sharing their work online. It particularly harms artists whose work focuses on their own bodies, including queer and gender-nonconforming artists, and the bodies of those in their communities. Museums and galleries are constrained when even promoting exhibitions featuring nudes.

Platforms like Instagram allow up-and-coming artists, and all artists without access to traditional methods of distribution, to reach global audiences on a scale unimaginable to earlier generations. Museums and art institutions can open their collections, and promote shows, to ever-widening audiences. Particularly for photographers, Instagram has opened new worlds of exploration and expression.

Now, in the aftermath of the naked protests, Facebook is reconsidering its policy on nude images. NBC News reported this week that Facebook is meeting with a group of activists to see how they can revise their policy on nudity.

Attorney Gabriella Mas Bell argues told NBC News that Facebook is trying to clean up its platform. These changes have included frequent changes to Facebook’s terms of service. “I’m not actually that surprised they’re trying to find a better solution as they’re cracking down on things like hate speech and the abusive language,” Bell said.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.

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