More than eighty thousand mothers have protested the move of Facebook to take down pictures of moms breastfeeding their babies. The protest has turned into a full blown movement entitled ‘Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!’ There has been a vigorous and widespread objection to Facebook’s action of removing pictures of breastfeeding mothers without notice and warning emails. The website has even threatened to continue banning members who persist to show the so-called ‘obscene pictures,’ claiming that the site should be safe to all users, including children.

Mothers recently held an online debate, publicly opposing the puzzling action from Facebook. At the Facebook headquarters, a lot of mothers staged a huge nursing session to stress the decency of breastfeeding and spite the website. They call themselves ‘lactivists.’ Facebook held its ground, saying that these users broke the Terms of Service that they agreed with when they signed up to use the social networking facility. Showing an exposed breast is against the terms.

There are two items in the Terms of Service that directly concern the issue, and upon which Facebook bases its rights to take down posted website content. The site’s Code of Conduct bans the posting of obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit content. The other is Facebook’s explicit right to take down what it deems as content not fit for public viewing. Such double standards, of course, if one sees the explicit homosexual and pornographic images that find its way into Facebook, probably missing the attention of the company.

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Via The Register