Facebook & Breastfeeding Ban
I am posting this on behalf of twitter friend (and fellow nuring mom) Laura Fitton :
You as a journalist should be aware of this situation with Facebook.
Facebook reportedly banned/censored profile photos of nursing mothers on the grounds that they are obscene:
-The Age (Australian Newspaper) report dated Sept. 7th (note, topless ads are referred to even back then) http://urltea.com/25xw -Facebook Group (yeah, ironic, I know) that is petition against Facebook for banning nursing photos: http://snipurl.com/1u18x As of the other day, this group has 34,264 members -Blog post dated Sept. 12 about the situation: http://urltea.com/25xv
This week a prominent Boston-area blogger named Chris Brogan was served, and reported on his blog and on twitter, ads for a sex video chat service. The ad was a photo of a topless woman provocatively posed -Blog post documenting topless ads served to Facebook business user:
http://tinyurl.com/2gsc29
In addition to the inconsistency of these actions/policies, having topless ads on a "business-oriented" social network is a serious liability for Facebook.
Another piece of the puzzle is that analysis of Facebook's own targeted advertising data, 2/3 of their use is coming from women.
Interesting they would treat breasts so badly, considering this.
http://www.profy.com/2007/11/23/women-growing-to-become-great-majority-on-the-social-web/
To editorialize: Pretty egregious, and I am amazed they haven't been called on it or pressed to respond. I think the general public would be kind of horrified by this. I think the situation is outrageous and Facebook should immediately, and loudly, address it, fix it, and apologize.
Thanks for any ideas or follow-up you wish to share.
With regards,
Laura Fitton
(Social Media Consultant and nursing mother)
www.pistachioconsulting.com
www.brainsieve.com
www.twitter.com/pistachio
