A Meta advisory board is calling for photos of bare breasts to be allowed on the tech giant’s popular Facebook and Instagram platforms after complaints that the old policy discriminated against gender-fluid users.
The Oversight Board, which is made up of academics, politicians, and journalists who advise Meta on its content moderation policies, recommended on Tuesday that the tech giant alter its adult nudity restrictions “so that it is governed by clear criteria that respect international human rights standards.”
The board, which claims its decisions are “binding” and that “Meta has to follow them,” determined that that “the [old] policy is based on a binary view of gender and a distinction between male and female bodies,” which makes rules about baring nipples “unclear” for those who do not identify as women.
Meta should “define clear, objective, rights-respecting criteria” for nude images “so that all people are treated in a manner consistent with international human rights standards,” according to the Oversight Board.
Meta’s adult nudity rules “post disproportionate restrictions on some types of content and expression,” according to the board.
Instead, the social media site could make do with warning screens and age-gating content so that only users over 18 years old could gain access to it, the board recommended.
The board’s advisory is a victory for the #FreeTheNipple online movement which has mobilized for more than a decade to demand that social media apps allow images of bare-chested women.
The movement was galvanized by a recent decision by Facebook to censor two posts by an American couple that identifies as both transgender and non-binary.
The couple posed topless but covered their nipples — only to have the post flagged by other users. Meta banned the image, but the couple won their appeal and the photo was restored online.
Facebook has in years past been accused of oversexualizing breasts.
In 2013, the social media site took down clips from a documentary called “Free the Nipple” about the movement to allow for female toplessness in public.
The film gained a following and was endorsed by celebrities including Miley Cyrus, Rumer Willis, Cara Delevingne, and Nico Tortorella.
Facebook and Instagram introduced exemptions for its no-nipple rule, allowing images that depict breastfeeding, birth-giving, and after-birth moments as well as health- and medical-related conditions such as breast cancer awareness, post-mastectomy images, and gender-affirming surgeries.
The Post has reached out to Meta for comment.