Facebook is deleting photos of breastfeeding women.
Facebook is deleting breastfeeding photos from its platform, and it’s infuriating mothers. The social media giant has been under fire for the past several months for censoring pictures of women breastfeeding their children. Many moms have been sharing their stories on social media about Facebook removing their photos, claiming that they’re being censored because of the subject matter.
Some mothers say that Facebook has removed their breastfeeding photos multiple times, and many are saying that the social media platform is doing this because they don’t want to be associated with nudity. While it may seem strange to censor something like a nursing mother feeding her child, there are actually some pretty good reasons why Facebook might be taking these actions.
Why is Facebook deleting breastfeeding photos?
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Facebook is a private company, and as such can choose what content it wants to allow on its platform. In general, Facebook doesn’t allow images of nudity or partial nudity on its site unless they’re in an artistic context or posted by a verified account holder (celebrities). As such, most people would expect Facebook to remove any images that show breasts exposed in a non-artistic way. It’s worth noting that this rule applies regardless of whether the person in question is a man or woman.
As for why this rule applies to nursing mothers specifically? Well there are two main reasons: 1) Nursing mothers have legal rights in many states regarding public exposure of breasts while nursing; 2) Breastfeeding moms have long complained about being shamed for breast-feeding their babies in public by people who think they should do it “privately” instead.
According to Parenting, “the United States has laws which state women can breastfeed wherever they want—including restaurants and stores.” Additionally, according to Baby Center, “[t]he laws protecting your right to breastfeed your baby without harassment from others vary from state to state.” As such, if someone uploads an image of themselves breastfeeding without any other context (such as an artistic one), it could violate these laws depending on where they live.
