Published: December 29, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Facebook Removes Breastfeeding Pics
By Robert Paul Reyes
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.
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." Jeff Bertolucci, PC World
I commend Facebook's attempt to keep their social networking site nudity-free, but deleting pics of proud breastfeeding mothers is going a bit too far.
I have seen many images on Facebook of scantily-clad young ladies that are certainly more provocative than a beaming mom breastfeeding her baby.
There is nothing remotely obscene about an image that depicts a breastfeeding mom, regardless if her areola is visible or not.
There may be a niche market for people who get off on photographs of breastfeeding moms, but I'm sure the intentions of the moms who post such images are pure.
There are a lot of disturbing images on the Internet, but a picture of a mom breastfeeding her little angel won't disturb a normal person. The Facebook censors should concentrate on removing spam and viruses from their site, and stop deleting wholesome images just because a prude complains.
Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.
Robert Reyes
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