The oversight board of Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has called on the social media platform to revise its rules regarding naked women’s posts, urging greater “equality.”
“It is interesting to note that the only non-sexualised nipples are those of men or nipples that have undergone surgery,” commented Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Danish prime minister and member of the oversight board.
The board made its call as part of an investigation into the removal of photos of a bare-chested couple with their nipples covered. The caption stated that one of them would soon undergo sex-change surgery and that the couple wanted to raise funds for it.
The removal of the images was not consistent with Meta’s values or human rights responsibilities, the oversight board ruled, adding that the company’s policy hinders women, transgender and non-binary individuals from expressing themselves on its various platforms.
Instagram bans photos that show women’s nipples, with the exception of images of breastfeeding or linked to gender reassignment surgery. That policy is founded on a "binary" gender view, the oversight board stated. This means that moderators must determine gender and sex quickly and subjectively, which is not realistic on a large scale, it added.
The oversight board thus called on Instagram to define “clear, objective” criteria “consistent with human rights.”
In that way, people will not be discriminated against based on their sex or gender, it noted.
