Update: 1pm GMT – It appears there is another group on FB – Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!(Official petition to Facebook) – TechCrunch picked it up in 2007 so why-oh-why it’s hit the headlines again I don’t know!
Original post below:
BBC Radio Five Live’s Victoria Derbyshire has given quite a bit of airtime this morning to a new Facebook Group – Breast feeding is not a crime (Facebook bans breast feeding pictures)
Shoehorned in between coverage of the New Years Honours List and the bombings in Bilbao, the coverage has been greeted with mixed emotion by people berating Facebook for seemingly condemning what many see as a natural act, and those who can’t see what all the fuss is about.
Facebook has quite rightly banned photos of mothers breastfeeding where some or part of the nipple has been exposed because it violates their terms and conditions of service.
Those Ts & Cs are there for a reason and no one calling into Victoria’s show raised the issue of advertising!
It’s not that Facebook thinks that breast feeding is disgusting and somehow not worthy of parading on its pages, but it’s partly because advertisers don’t necessarily want their messages displayed next to images of nudity – what every form it might take.
Check out the group for some….erm……titillation….there are some weird and whacky comments, including one television company taking the opportunity to canvass for participants for a totally unrelated documentary.
One commenter from Australia says: “ITS YOUR FACE BOOK, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO PUT THE PHOTOS ON. THATS AS FAR AS IT GOES!!!!”
Actually it’s not just anyone’s Facebook and they have firm and decent reasons for policing images and making sure they keep within their guidelines.
Happy New Year! 🙂
P.S. At the time of writing the group had 1,156 members.
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Couldn’t agree with you more. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with breast feeding, but why in the world would any mother feel the need to post photos of her doing it on Facebook?!
Perhaps these people could invest all this time in fighting for more important issues rather then the “right” to post photos of themselves breastfeeding on Facebook?