Facebook is in the midst of an unusual controversy - with the protestors of the Facebook ban on breast-feeding photos apparently resounding: “Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding is Not Obscene!”
The social networking site has, over the past year, has asked some woman users to remove their breastfeeding pictures from the site, saying that they are obscene, and violate the Terms of Use of the site. According to Facebook, the pictures of breasting, which reveals the ‘areola’ - the dark skin around the nipple - violates the site’s policy on “obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit” material.
However, according to the US Right to Breastfeed Act, HR 1848 that became a law in 1999, women are allowed to breastfeed on federal property. More than half of the US States have laws granting permission to women to breastfeed in public areas.
In an attempt to serve an open petition to Facebook, the nursing advocates group site, by Saturday evening, had posted two dozen videos, almost 3,000 photos of breast-feeding, about 10,000 wall comments, starting off more than 1,500 discussion threads.
Not only are online protests on the increase – the protesting group nearly being 70,000 members strong – an actual pavement-pounding protest also took place in the front of Facebook’s downtown Palo Alto headquarters.
What effect the demonstrations will have on the Facebook executives, with regard to lifting the site’s prohibition of breasts displayed on the profiles and albums of members, is yet to be seen!
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breastfeeding
I just had a baby girl 8 weeks ago and i breastfeed her out in public and i think that women should do it any ware even if they want to put pictures on the internet. Women should do whatever they want. It just shows that they have a great self esteem.
Facebook in controversy over ban on breastfeeding photos
I was breast fed, my siblings were breast fed, my children were breast fed. If a woman should choose to share this basic, natural, human bond between mother and child then, certainly that is her right. If Facebook chose to not allow this activity on their website, that is their right.
What is NOT right is Facebook's handling of the matter. They could have notified the group that this was something they did not support and given them an alternative. I won't condemn either group. However, I will not obtain a Facebook account either, I just think that their handling of the matter was unprofessional and disrespectful.
I don't think this was exploitative of mothers or children in any way, its more like a shared achievement or shared milestone in the lives of the people involved and is there any harm in that? We as a people share so many other parts of our lives, where is the harm in sharing this?
Calcatian
So a mother has to be ashamed because she is feeding her baby? Its not those pics that were dirty, the filth was in the viewer’s (FB mods) mind. When a woman is a nursing mother, she is in the purest stage of her life. And anyone who finds it objectionable definitely needs to see a psychiatrist because that person is undoubtedly a sick pervert.