Facebook and Instagram are telling us it’s time to free the nipple as they are now getting ready to lift the ban on showing bare breasts on their platforms. However, at the moment it appears the policy is just for transgender and non-binary users.
Free The Nipple! Facebook & Instagram Lift Ban On Bare Breasts, But Only For Transgender And Non-Binary Users
According to new reports, Meta, the head company for Facebook and Instagram, are “freeing the nipple” as its Oversight Board advises them that the ban on bare breasts violates “human rights” of women, transgender and non-binary people.
The board, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, specifically focused their recommendation primarily on a ban imposed by Instagram following two posts by a couple, one of whom is transgender, and the other non-binary.
The two individuals posed topless, but covered their nipples in an attempt to raise awareness around top surgery. The couple’s photo was banned by Meta, but eventually they won their appeal and the photo was restored online.
Responding to the ban, the Oversight Board said that “the [old] policy is based on a binary view of gender and a distinction between male and female bodies,” which in turn blurs the lines of the rules for those who do not identify as women.
Now, for women who have long fought to desexualize images of bare breasts (as men are allowed), this policy also affects them, but doesn’t provide much help from Meta.
In its ruling, the board said the company’s adult nudity policy is based on a binary view of gender, again making it unclear how the rules apply to intersex, non-binary and transgender people.
As of the announcement on Wednesday (January 18), transgender and non-binary users can now flash their bare breasts — but women, who were born female and who are still eager to “free the nipple” — are still out of luck.
Meta also reveals that they will now rely on “human reviewers” whose duties will now include “quickly assess[ing] both a user’s sex, as this policy applies to ‘female nipples,’ and their gender identity.”
The Oversight Board also added in its statement, “[There will be] additional nipple-related exceptions based on contexts of protest, birth giving, after birth, and breastfeeding which it did not examine here, but also must be assessed.”
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