Facebook bans fake nipples

David Heath
Tuesday, 06 July 2010 14:27

Your IT - Home IT

The puritans at Facebook are out to save the world, one porcelain nipple at a time.

One would have thought that the whole debate of 'art' versus 'real life' when it comes to mild nudity would have become stale many years ago, but it would seem Facebook never got the memo.

Over the past weekend, Victoria Buckley, a well-known Sydney jeweller posted an image on her Facebook page and in response was bombarded with warnings from Facebook that the naked porcelain dolls included in the images were inappropriate content that"breached the site's terms of service."

It would seem that clause 3.7 of Facebook's "terms of service" is the point in question:"You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence." We'd hope it was the"contains nudity" that raised the issue.

Buckley notes, on her alternate Facebook page "Save Ophelia - exquisite doll censored by Facebook," "Ophelia is a beautiful porcelain sculpture created by an extremely talented artist, Marina Bychkova of Enchanted Doll.

'Facebook is warning us that these images must be removed.

'Problem is, Ophelia is a rare and precious art work, and much of her magic is from her natural form, without drapery, without black bars.

'I feel I have a right to photograph my jewellery with Ophelia as I see fit. Facebook disagrees with this, because, even if hundreds of people appreciate what you do, it only takes ONE complaint to have the whole thing taken down. They have removed the original photos from my page."

At the moment, Ophelia is tastefully adorned with a broad black bar across her breasts - 'tis a truly lovely look.

Plus 1 for Buckley's business publicity, minus a whole lot more for Facebook's reaction.