Facebook agrees to stop censoring artworks containing nudity

VisitFlanders has won its argument with Facebook to allow images of artworks that contain nudity on the social media site. Facebook officially agreed to lighten up its restrictions on nudity for VisitFlanders and other cultural institutions earlier this week at the Rubens House in Antwerp.

Facebook has a famously strict policy when it comes to nudity, and photos that show bare breasts or bottoms are quickly detected and deleted. That includes images of artworks that contain nudity – a great many of them, obviously.

VisitFlanders had its own posts censored by Facebook, particularly in the lead up to Antwerp Baroque, a months-long festival celebrating Rubens and the Baroque going on now. Where there is Rubens, there is nudity, and VisitFlanders found it frustrating to try to create campaigns that were saccharine enough for the social media giant.

“This year – and for the next two years – we are spotlighting Rubens, Bruegel and Van Eyck,” Stef Gits of VisitFlanders told VRT. “So we have placed targeted ads on Facebook aimed at our neighbouring countries as well as Spain and Italy. But every time we used an artwork with nudity, it would disappear immediately.”

So VisitFlanders made a quirky video pointing out just how ridiculous this seemed and, together with a number of other cultural organisations, challenged Facebook’s policy. And Facebook caved. It has signed an agreement with VisitFlanders to no longer remove images of artworks placed by cultural institutions – at least in Europe.

“Facebook’s European representatives have promised that they will alter the algorithms so that artistic nudity can remain,” said Gits. Facebook also said it would review its posting policies to make them easier to understand and more transparent.

Photo courtesy VisitFlanders