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Facebook Restores That Nipple/Elbow Photo

Yesterday we told you about Facebook’s latest act of severe breast phobia, as the social network removed a photo that only appeared to depict bare breasts, but instead featured a woman’s e...
Facebook Restores That Nipple/Elbow Photo
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Yesterday we told you about Facebook’s latest act of severe breast phobia, as the social network removed a photo that only appeared to depict bare breasts, but instead featured a woman’s elbow. The Facebook page that posted the photo, Theories of the deep understanding of things, admitted that they had posted the photo as a sort of “Facebook alertness test.” In reality, the page trolled Facebook into making another ridiculous content ban in order to prove that the company and their outsourced content moderators are less than perfect when it comes to deciding what should stay and what should go on the site.

    It worked, as the nipplebow photo and its removal received quite a bit of media attention.

    Now, as expected, Facebook has apologized for banning the photo and reinstated it. In a statement, Facebook said that “This photo does not violate our content standards and we have already restored the photo. We made a mistake removing the picture and apologized to the page admin.”

    Fair enough. It’s not the first time, nor will it be the last time that Facebook wrongly removes a photo or a link.

    The Theories page posted a snarky response to Facebook’s “apology”:

    It’s nice to know that tons of media-exposure…can actually make FB be a little more sensible, or maybe a little more worried. One mission is sorta accomplished then, though the more important issue, which is this pathetic fear of the human body and human sexuality, is far from being resolved. so no real tits and asses for you. not even in a renaissance or in an abstract painting. Try to enjoy those Hair-removal and breast implants ads, though. We can’t wait for the next FB alertness test.

    In the end, these “alertness tests” only serve to bring to light the fact that content moderation on a site as huge as Facebook is a nearly impossible task. No amount of eyes could adequately patrol the millions and millions of pieces of content that users upload every day. Facebook could relax their content guidelines a bit, and that would probably prevent silly things like this from happening. But then again, it would probably lead to a lot more porn on Facebook.

    Which, could be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask.

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