Facebook has found itself at the core of a heated controversy after the popular social-networking Web site removed photos of breast-feeding mothers. The company threatened to close the account of 23-year-old Heather Farley after she posted two photos of herself breast-feeding her infant daughter.
The move has launched protests by Facebook members and pro-breast-feeding groups. Facebook officials told The Washington Post they are not against breast-feeding and refer to it as “beautiful,” but photos that show nipples violate its terms-of-use policy.
Facebook’s policy specifically states that obscene or sexually explicit photos will be removed from the Web site, and the company says photos of full breasts fall in that category.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has pulled a photo of a breast-feeding baby. Last year, the company pulled a photo of a mother breast-feeding her baby, which resulted in the mother forming a group called “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene.”
Farley, along with the group behind Hey Facebook, the Mothers International Lactation Campaign, organized both a virtual and live nurse-in, which took place Saturday in front of Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.
“For many years, the World Health Organization has emphasized the need for mothers to breast-feed and has set minimum standards that many countries, including the United States, still have yet to meet,” Farley, a Provo, Utah, mother, wrote in a letter to Facebook. “They have set these standards to help prevent the significant number of deaths of infants in our world. By removing pictures of breast-feeding, the message is sent that it is something shameful, something that should be hidden and not seen.”
Farley also said Facebook is discriminating against breast-feeding mothers.
“Like issues such as pregnancy, breast-feeding discrimination is a gender issue,” she said. “When pictures are removed of breast-feeding and not of artificial feeding, breast-feeding mothers…