The independent oversight board of Mita decided to lift the strict ban on women being exposed and officially showing their breasts on the Facebook and Instagram platforms several days ago, after a series of protest campaigns.
The Meta Oversight Board, an independent body of academic and legal experts that decides the platform’s general policies, announced the lifting of the ban on images of topless women as well as of bisexuals and transgender people.
The most prominent protest campaigns against Facebook’s nudity policy
This decision came after a series of protests and media campaigns accusing Facebook and Instagram of “double standards” and discrimination on the basis of sex.
The most important of which was a 2013 documentary film entitled “Free Nibbles” that criticized Facebook’s policy, as it was attended by a number of celebrities and actors such as: Cyrus, Rumer Willis, Cara Delevingne and Nico Tortorella.
On June 2, 2019, the National Coalition Against Censorship organized a vigil for 125 naked people in front of Facebook’s headquarters in New York City.
The coalition submitted to Facebook an official letter, signed by more than 250 anti-sexism activist organizations, as well as the Association of Academic Art Museums and Galleries, asking the platform to relax its policies and allow nudity for artistic purposes.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said in 2018, “It is easier to build an AI system to detect ‘nipple’ than it is to detect hate speech.” Then the platform published guidelines for users linking the policy of preventing nudity to the safety of the user and avoiding sexual exploitation of him.
In 2012, the Facebook administration exceptionally allowed the display of images that dealt with breastfeeding, postpartum moments, and other topics related to breast health and breast cancer awareness in particular.
