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Instagram and Facebook was advised to end its censorship of bare breasts and torsos for all genders following a decision by parent company Meta’s oversight board. The panel – which The Guardian says is made up of academics, politicians and journalists – overturned a decision by Instagram to remove a post by a transgender and non-binary couple (who are now required to remain anonymous due to the oversight panel’s involvement) with them to see naked torsos. The images showed the couple posing topless with their nipples covered and captions describing transgender health care and raising money for top surgeries.
In rescinding the post’s deletion, the board also recommended that Meta change its current rules on censorship “so that it is governed by clear criteria that respect international human rights standards.”
Referring to Meta’s Community Standard on Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity, the report states that the policy prohibits “images containing female nipples except in certain circumstances, such as It states: “Such an approach obscures how the rules apply to intersex, non-binary and transgender people and requires reviewers to make quick and subjective gender and gender assessments, which is important when moderating content at large scope is not practical.”
It adds that the limitations and exceptions to these censorship rules — which include protests, childbirth scenes, and other medical and health contexts like top surgeries — aren’t always clear to moderators, creating uncertainty for Facebook and Instagram users.
“Here, the board notes that Meta’s policies on adult nudity result in greater barriers to the expression of women, trans and gender non-humans on its platforms,” the report reads. “For example, they have severe implications in contexts where women traditionally perform shirtless, and people who identify as LGBTQI+ can be disproportionately impacted, as these cases demonstrate. Meta’s automated systems have identified the content multiple times, although it does not violate Meta’s policies.”
The panel concluded by recommending that Meta define clearer and “rights-respecting” criteria for its community standard for adult nudity and sexual activity without sex or gender discrimination. It also noted that the policy should protect against non-consensual sharing of images and questioned whether other judgments needed to be strengthened in this regard. Questions have also been raised about how new, more inclusive policies will address concerns such as child protection and pornography.