Is Facebook ‘freeing the nipple’? Misinformation swirls as new policy is considered
Rumors swirled this week claiming Facebook and Instagram would ”free the nipple” and allow photos of bare breasts — but only of transgender and nonbinary people.
But that isn’t exactly true, officials with parent company Meta told McClatchy News. So what is actually happening?
Essentially, Meta’s Oversight Board suggested the social media sites should overhaul and clarify their “confusing” policies around nipples and bare breasts to be more inclusive, particularly of trans and nonbinary people, according to a Jan. 17 decision.
Meta now has until mid-March to review the board’s recommendations and decide whether the company will officially change its content policies, spokesperson Sally Aldous told McClatchy News.
In other words, Meta has not changed its policy at all — at least not yet.
So what prompted that recommendation?
The situation is somewhat murky. It all started when Meta erroneously removed two Instagram posts that a U.S.-based trans and nonbinary couple posted to raise funds for their gender-affirming surgery.
One was posted in 2021, the other in 2022, the decision states. Both photos showed them “bare-chested with the nipples covered,” and the captions discussed transgender health care and said one of them would soon undergo top surgery — surgery that reshapes the chest to create a more masculine or feminine appearance for transgender and nonbinary people.
Meta’s automated systems and other Instagram users flagged the posts for potentially violating Community Standards, the decision states. Meta took the posts down for violating the Sexual Solicitation Community Standard, “seemingly because they contain breasts and a link to a fundraising page,” the Oversight Board found.
The couple appealed the takedown to Meta and then the oversight board. Before the board reviewed their appeal, “Meta found it had removed the posts in error and restored them,” the decision states.
Unclear, confusing nudity standards
The Oversight Board found that removing the posts was “not in line with Meta’s Community Standards, values or human rights responsibilities,” and said the cases “highlight fundamental issues with Meta’s policies,” the decision states.
Board members called for an overhaul of the social media sites’ “confusing” policies around the Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity Community Standard.
The conflict stems directly from the standard that prohibits “female nipples” except in certain situations, “such as breastfeeding and gender confirmation surgery,” the decision states.
The exceptions to the rules on “female nipples are extensive and confusing, particularly as they apply to transgender and nonbinary people,” the decision states. The exceptions “range from protests, to scenes of childbirth, and medical and health contexts, including top surgery and breast cancer awareness” and are “often convoluted and poorly defined,” the decision states.
It described cases of content moderators having to verify the nature of top surgery or mastectomy scars to determine whether the exceptions apply.
“This policy is based on a binary view of gender and a distinction between male and female bodies,” the board found. “Such an approach makes it unclear how the rules apply to intersex, nonbinary and transgender people, and requires viewers to make rapid and subjective assessment of sex and gender, which is not practical when moderating content at scale.”
The policies “result in greater barriers to expression for women, trans, and gender non-binary people on its platforms,” the board found.
What did the Oversight Board recommend?
It recommended Meta “define clear, objective, rights-respecting criteria to govern its Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity Community Standard, so that all people are treated in a manner consistent with international human rights standards, without discrimination on the basis of sex or gender.”
Meta should work with stakeholders to develop a plan to address the harms the community standard has thus far caused, the board said.
It also recommended Meta “provide more detail in its public-facing Sexual Solicitation Community Standard on the criteria that lead to content being removed,” and “revise its guidance for moderators” so internal guidance better matches the public rules. “This would help to reduce enforcement errors on Meta’s part,” the board found.
Meta’s response so far
Meta’s Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity community standard states that its “nudity policies have become more nuanced over time.”
“We understand that nudity can be shared for a variety of reasons, including as a form of protest, to raise awareness about a cause, or for educational or medical reasons,” the standard states.
But that intent is still up to Meta’s moderators to determine, the standard states: “Where such intent is clear, we make allowances for the content.”
Meta acknowledged the shortcomings in their current standards, which can lead to some hasty decisions despite efforts to treat all users fairly, and said they “welcome” the board’s decision.
In a statement, officials pointed out Meta had already reinstated the flagged posts prior the decision, “recognizing that it should not have been taken down.”
“We know more can be done to support the LGBTQ+ community, and that means working with experts and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations on a range of issues and product improvements,” the statement said.
