Meta (Facebook, Instagram) is again being urged to revise its rules on nudity, particularly the one that prohibits women from showing their bare breasts and affects the ability of women and transgender or non-binary people to express themselves, the Group Supervisory Board.
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“We are asking Meta to address this issue. We say there should be more equality. Interestingly, the only nipples that aren’t sexualized are those of men or those who have had surgery,” Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Prime Minister of Denmark and a member of Meta’s board of directors, said during an online conference on Thursday Instagram.
The social media giant’s Supreme Court recently ruled that Meta shouldn’t have removed photos posted by a couple showing their breasts with their nipples covered.
The legend mentioned the health of transgender people and explained that one of the two people would soon have sex reassignment surgery (removal of the breasts). The couple raised funds to fund the intervention.
“The removal of these images is not consistent with Meta’s values or its human rights responsibilities,” the oversight board said Tuesday.
“The company’s adult nudity policy places more restrictions on women, transgender and non-binary people expressing themselves on its platforms,” the board added.
The oversight board consists of 20 international members, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and former political leaders. It was founded in 2020 at the suggestion of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and is responsible for evaluating the Californian group’s content moderation policy.
Metarules prohibit images of female nipples except in specific health contexts such as breastfeeding or gender reassignment surgery.
“This regulation is based on a binary vision of gender,” the board notes. “Here gender and sex of moderators are determined quickly and subjectively, which is unrealistic on a large scale.”
He therefore recommends that Meta’s management define “clear, objective and human rights-respecting criteria for the treatment of people without sex or gender discrimination in accordance with international human rights standards”.
Instagram is regularly accused of prudishness and impropriety by its users.
“Release these beauties,” model Helena Christensen wrote Thursday in a comment on a spoof video of comedian Celeste Barber shaking those pixelated bare breasts.