See the Pictures that Got me Banned From Facebook

The ongoing battle with Facebook continues! Since we had our Mighty Aphrodite Facebook page deleted last year I’ve been keeping a fairly low profile as I was pretty gutted about losing 7 years of followers and posts. But I have gradually started to get back into posting and managed to go almost a whole 12 months without being banned!

But in December I posted a picture to our Mighty Boudoir Closed group that was immediately removed and I was told I would be banned from posting on FB for 30 days – this is the picture they removed:

So why was it removed? There are no nipples on show but I suppose there is a lot of bum in the picture, so maybe it was too much. But wait a second…a couple of minutes before I posted the above picture, I also posted a picture to our public FB page too – this is the one:
So according to FB this picture is fine (I guess because part of the bottom is covered). So you can see why I (and lots of other people) find it very confusing to know what is allowed in terms of nudity on FB. Why is a bare bottom so offensive but a nearly bare bottom is OK?

After serving my 30 day ban I was once again playing it very safe. But being a member of a few photography groups I posted a picture in one to demonstrate one of our popular couples poses:

Now this is a very sexy shot, but there are no nipples, no bums and it is obvious that they are not actually engaged in any actual sexual activity. But again the image was removed and I was served with a 7 day ban this time. The fact that it took over an hour to be removed and that I was only given a 7 day ban I believe means that someone in the group reported the picture. Seeing as the name of the group is “Nude Boudoir Photography” and the group moderator approved the post I wouldn’t have expected anyone to get offended…but there’s always one ?

This is what FB messaged to me about why they removed the image:

It looks like something you posted doesn’t follow our Community Standards. On Facebook, we don’t allow offers of sexual services, solicitation of sexual material, threats or depictions of sexual violence, threats to share intimate images or any sexual content involving minors.

We understand that you may not have known about these standards, so we’d encourage you to learn more about our policies on sexual exploitation and violence. If you’ve seen or experienced something on Facebook that you think goes against these or any of our other standards, you can report it to us.

Thanks for your understanding and help in keeping Facebook safe and welcoming.

WTF? The caption I put when I posted the image simply said Sexy Couples Pose. I didn’t even put a link to our website. I messaged FB back saying:

“Please look at this image. It is a photograph of a loving couple. How does it not follow the community guidelines? It is not offering a sexual service or soliciting sexual material. There is no threat or depiction of sexual violence. There is no threat to share intimate images and the content of the image does not include minors. So I really don’t see what about this image is so bad that it has been removed. I myself have reported images that have been FAR worse and they have not been removed. There is no consistency so it is impossible to follow the guidelines of what is allowed. Please get back to me about this matter.”

Their reply:

We’ve reviewed your photo again and confirmed that it doesn’t follow our Community Standards. We understand that you may not have known about the standards, so we encourage you to learn more about what you can share on Facebook.

So the FB Community Guidelines continue to be a complete mystery to me. I understand that their guidelines are there to protect children and sensitive adults from seeing content that is inappropriate – our FB page & group is blocked to anyone under the age of 19. But without consistency and much clearer guidelines it is very difficult to know what I am going to be allowed to post. Has anyone else had similar problems? I’d love to hear your experiences. ?