Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
The advisory board for Meta has informed Facebook and Instagram that they need to reverse their policy of censorship of bare breasts on the platforms. Previously, what were perceived to be female nipples were automatically banned by the social media apps.
The advisory board, however, responded by saying that the policy impedes the right to expression for women, trans and nonbinary people.
An internationally acclaimed photographer has told of her frustration and disappointment after a Barcelona art museum censored her prestigious concurrent exhibition with images by Helmut Newton. The censorship occurred without warning. The first that photographer Renée Jacobs knew about it was on the opening night when more than half the images had been removed for reasons of what she describes as discrimination and misogyny.
Renee Jacobs is a multi-award-winning photographer and has received accolades for her body of work in depicting the female form. Her book Polaroids has recently won first prize in the International Photography Awards for Book/Fine Art. So it was no surprise then when the FotoNostrum Gallery invited her to show her work in a joint exhibition alongside Helmut Newton called “seeingWOMEN”.
Egypt: one of those truly exotic and enigmatic destinations, steeped in history. It’s on a lot of people’s bucket lists to visit, photographers and non-photographers alike. But of course, like many places, it’s complicated. Political upheaval and terrorism threats have made it less relaxing to visit in recent years. Coupled with that, strict politics have gone as far as to infringe on the freedom to take photos and videos freely in public spaces.
Several vloggers and influencers who visited Egypt in the past year were dismayed to have their camera equipment confiscated by authorities. So it’s good news then for most tourists and visitors that the Egyptian government has announced that it is relaxing its rules on casual street photography and photography in public spaces. As long as it’s strictly for amateur use, however.
Earlier this month, Russia decided to ban Facebook citing “discrimination against Russian media.” But as of today, Instagram is banned in this country, too.
One of the reasons behind this decision is the fact that Meta has allowed posts that call for violence against Russian soldiers and politicians. But both moves have inevitably caused some censorship concerns, too.
One of many double standards oddities of Instagram is that it doesn’t allow nipples, but only if they’re female. Not even a famous movie director like Pedro Almodóvar can’t post a female nipple on the platform. After sharing a poster for his new movie Parallel Mothers, the director had it removed “because it violated Instagram’s nudity standards.” But did it really?
Last week, Instagram introduced the new “Sensitive content control” feature within the app. It lets users choose how much sensitive content they want to see – all, some, or almost none of it. This means that some people you may want to reach will not be able to discover your work in Explore, and some creators have already complained about it.
Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns County, Florida recently came under fire for photoshopping girls’ bodies in yearbook photos. After their yearbook was published, 80 female students reported that their photos were altered to remove any hint of cleavage. The students and their parents got furious, and so did the public.
Back in June, Instagram censored an image of a Black, plus-size model Nyome Nicholas – Williams holding an arm across her breasts. This caused a lot of controversies and even started a movement and a petition for Instagram to “stop censoring fat black women.” And they did. After the whole controversy and Nyome’s campaign, Instagram has changed its nudity policy.
No matter how hard some influencers try to debunk the myth of “the perfect body,” there will always be those who promote it. Heck, even Instagram itself seems to prefer skinny, model-like women over us regular gals. The platform recently banned users from sharing Celeste Barber‘s semi-nude parody photo. It wouldn’t be a problem if the original image of a model Candice Swanepoel weren’t left untouched. After the scandal, Instagram quickly came under fire for “fat-shaming” and “double standards.”
Yes, folks, you read that right. Facebook banned a photo of onions posted to the Facebook page of Canada-based seed company, Gaze Seed Company for being “overtly sexual”. The company used the image in a Facebook ad in order to sell Walla Walla sweet onion seeds on the platform when they were told that the image went against their advertising policies.
The image used in the ad is of the seed packaging and shows a handful of the company’s onions in a wicker basket, which the Facebook says were positioned in a “sexually suggestive manner”. According to Gaze Seed Company, however, the controversy has brought them more sales than the ad ever would have on its own.
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