Posted on 01/12/2009 10:50:14 AM PST by Paleo Conservative
Facebook's ban on nursing pix is blowing up in its face -- more proof that Net censorship invariably leads to trouble. Cringe has more.
TAGS: Anti-social networking
Yet another social media site has waded into the treacherous waters of deciding what is and isn't obscene and ended up with egg on its face -- or in this case, breast milk.
Last month Facebook decided that posting photos of babies sucking happily at their mothers' bosoms were naughty, not nice, and banned them from the site. Boy was that a mistake.
Angry moms immediately formed a Facebook protest group that now boasts nearly 160,000 members. Sharon Kennedy Wynne of Tampabay.com's Whoa, Momma! blog writes:
The first five days of the year, the group was getting 10,000 new members a day. That's about the number of people who defiantly posted breastfeeding photos online that day. There was artwork of Mary nursing Jesus, of cows nursing their calves and lots of Mommas feeding their babies, Stephanie Knapp Muir, one of the organizers, told me. But she was peppered with complaints that many had their photos removed and a terse letter from Facebook warning them not to do it again or risk losing their membership to the site. Other bloggers took up the call; Google "Facebook breastfeeding" and you'll get more than 2 million hits. Now the ticked-off moms are building a mosaic of breastfeeding photos that organizers say will ultimately feature 100,000 images.
Personally, I'd rather tussle with a grizzly or a great white than with an angry mother of a newborn. And yet Facebook refuses to back down.
OK, I'll just say it, because you expect it: What total boobs those people are. If Facebook had simply asked the moms to mark these pictures as private, or limit access to adult family members, this whole controversy could have been nipped in the bud. Now thousands of ticked-off moms are nursing a grudge against the service.
And yes, I am milking this topic for jokes. (Have I missed any?)
The bigger issue of course is Net censorship. Trying to define obscenity is like trying to drive a nail through a bar of wet soap while wearing roller skates. Nobody wants Facebook to turn into a porn palace (except maybe the porn industry) but why it's picking on lactating moms is a complete mystery. If watching a suckling babe in arms gets you all warm and wiggly, you have bigger problems.
And it will very likely backfire. Instead of Facebook banning moms, they might just decide to leave the service en masse. You might even call that offering tit for tat.
ROFL!
And like CNN Facebook can choose to uniliterally support one candidate in a presidential race for POTUS.
Medias should follow rules of fair debates and free speech in a real democracy whatever can be the personnal choices of the leaders.
Journalist Censorship and treachery should be sentenced...
Free speech implies responsability or it can leed to tyrany
Dang...they will only allow the non functioning part....Hmm?
How are young mothers supposed to troll for beefcake if they’re not allowed to flash boob where the beefcake is?
***************************EXCERPT**********************
According to a San Jose Mercury News report, a small group of protestors congregated in front of Facebook's Palo Alto headquarters last Saturday, singing songs, nursing babies, and generally making a ruckus about the company rule that forbids fully-exposed breasts on the site.
One of the protest organizers, Heather Farley, says two nursing photos were removed from her Facebook page, and that the site warned her that her account would be closed if its censors felt it necessary to remove one more photo, according to the Mercury News story.
A Facebook spokesman says the social net has no problem with nursing pics, provided they don't violate site policy that prohibits visible nipples or areola. In addition, Facebook doesn't actively seek out breastfeeding shots, but rather only removes images after users complain.
Yup, only fatty tissue/ cleavagie type stuff, everything else is “dirty”.
“breastfeeding is a natural, nonsexual part of life.”
No, it isn’t. At least not all the time. Men’s sexual drive is tied directly to visual stimulation. Babies sucking on breasts are not the most enticing display of a woman’s body, but it is a woman’s body nontheless.
Pretending as if it is nonsexual for a second, so is pooping. Should Facebook have to present everything that is “natural”? No. It’s their decision, and the customers’/users’ decision whether or not to like it.
Thanks EatB...I’m glad someone caught that
Anything else would have been banned! ;-)
“but I don’t see why a woman would find it necessary or desirable to post a breast-feeding picture”
So they can show off their tits.
DUH!
*I’m sorry, but I don’t see why a woman would find it necessary or desirable to post a breast-feeding picture. *
Nor would anyone else with a modicum of decency or common sense. We all know both are in short supply.
LOL. Only a joe six pack would think shi&^ing and breast feeding are comparable.
I can sort of understand why some women, who have been raised with notions of modesty, would object to public breastfeeding, but we men? What the hell do we care?
Complaints about public breastfeeding from the gender that stops their cars on the highway, walk 2.5 inches into the woods to relieve ourselves, in full view of the thousands of cars passing us by on the highway. Too funny.
Agreed. One of the things I like about Facebook (even though its ads are predominantly leftist) is that they are attempting to maintain a certain level of decorum, unlike the sleazy MySpace. And why would any reasonable mom seethe at the restriction - since when is posting nursing photos all the rage anyway?
Men’s sexual drive is tied directly to visual stimulation. Babies sucking on breasts are not the most enticing display of a woman’s body, but it is a woman’s body nontheless.
_______
Men who are sexually aroused by the sight of a woman publically breastfeeding have waaaay bigger issues than any you describe.
It’s not a matter of searching for them.
Everyone someone responds to a person you are a friend with, you see their default picture.
And you get friend suggestions. The pictures are up for those too.
People will push the envelope.
Well, I have been going to the site for quite some time and I have never seen anything that I objected too. I get referrals all of the time and I have not had any problem with them, either.
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