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Facebook Pulls Breastfeeding Pictures

December 31st, 2008

Mothers have launched an online campaign and held a protest at Facebook headquarters after the website removed photographs of breastfeeding.

The pictures have been reported as “obscene” and taken off the site, according to the creators of the petition group which has more than 90,000 members. The group organised a virtual nurse-in, which they claim more than 11,000 people took part in, and held a demonstration outside Facebook’s offices in Palo Alto, California.

Members who posted the photos were warned not to add them again or they face being kicked off Facebook, the group said. But the website defended the move, saying it takes no action over most breastfeeding photos because they follow its terms of use. However, others – where too much of a mother’s breast are exposed – are removed to ensure the site remains safe and secure for all users, including children, a spokesman confirmed.

Facebook’s decision angered some users and led to the creation of protest group “Hey Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!”

On its page the group says: “We’re wondering: what about a baby breastfeeding is obscene? Especially in comparison to MANY other pictures posted all over Facebook that really are obscene.”

The group directed users to an alternative website where some of the banned breastfeeding photos have been reposted.

Banned December 29, 2008.
Banned December 29, 2008.

Madeleine, a few hours old. Her mother (Anne Hinze) took this photo. She’s a certificated lactation counsellor and educator in northwestern Florida. Read her enlightening essay, “On Breastfeeding and Obscenity,” here. 

I hope she doesn’t mind me reproducing her photo here and it won’t be banned on this blog 🙂

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