Facebook v. Breastfeeding May 31, 2012 - current
Facebook v. Breastfeeding Jan 30 - May 30, 2012
Facebook v. Breastfeeding Jan 8-29, 2012
Update, May 30, 8 a.m. MT
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| Removed from Melissa Bellemare's "Hippy with a Mini Van page. |
Update, May 25, 9 a.m. MT
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| Australian breast cancer prevent ad, removed from Beautiful Breastfeeding's FB page, May 2012 |
Being "dark" on Facebook in protest of the 30 day ban I received for sharing breastfeeding photos is an enlightening experience. It makes me much more aware of the value of Facebook to businesses as a tool to exploit customer goodwill.
Just one example. This morning, I am truly loving my Keurig coffee maker and the Starbucks coffee from Costco that took me from groggy to gregarious in 45 seconds. Most days it would be 1.5 minutes with fresh-ground Kicking Horse in a reusable filter, which is also pretty awesome.
Without my self-imposed darkness, I'd happily be sharing how pleased I am with those products and companies - I'd probably tag all four companies in the spirit of sharing my enthusiasm with my coffee-loving friends, and the notion that offering positive reinforcement to the companies involved will encourage
them to keep making fabulous products.
How much is that worth to those companies, and to Facebook? Pinnacle PR nas explained it nicely in this note:
"Word of mouth; buzz; third party advocacy — whatever you call it, enlisting or inspiring other people to spread key messages is a kind of holy grail for marketing communications. Third party voices are more credible and influential than anything a marketing, advertising or PR operation can put out on in an organisation’s own voice. This holy grail also promises strong return on investment through the multiplier effect of messages cascading through networks of stakeholders, acting at the same time as audience and channel."
Pinnacle PR, Keurig, Costco and Kicking Horse are companies with, between them, over a million fans. Imagine the potential impact of my positive word of mouth remarks for these companies. Imagine their chagrin at not having the benefit of my positive comments on their Facebook Page walls this morning.
Facebook needs satisfied users for its business model to work. I'm not very likely to be posting happy status updates if I'm frustrated with Facebook because its inability to properly administer its network is harming breastfeeding moms and those who support them. Thousands and thousands of Facebook Moms are increasingly frustrated with the company's lack of response to their concern over sanctions they receive for sharing breastfeeding photos.
Update, May 16, 4 p.m. MT
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The Time Magazine cover certainly has created quite a ruckus! Today I want to talk about the power of one woman - and one word.Before Emma Kwasnica's efforts in January and February to have Facebook revise their policies and procedures, this photo would have been suspect. Now, because of the efforts of one woman to change one word, this image is now acceptable according to Facebook's guidelines.
The word is "child."
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| Emma Kwasnica breastfeeding her daughter, Sophie, age 2. |
Today I want to celebrate Emma Kwasnica and thank her for her hard work. And I want to thank Facebook for changing that one word.
There is still a way to go - the policy isn't perfect, and Facebook still hasn't fixed its procedures. Women are still being harassed, breastfeeding photos are still being deleted, accounts are still being suspended in error, and there is no way to connect with Facebook to have the errors fixed.
Facebook continues to remove images even though they are acceptable according to their policy. But the Time cover hasn't been removed.
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| Oreo cookie ad removed from Hygeia's Facebook page in April, 2012. Facebook later apologized, but told Hygeia's social media rep Kate Gulbransen they couldn't guarantee it wouldn't happen again. |
You can tell Facebook that you want them to fix their problem by signing this petition. And you can thank Emma for her efforts by dropping by her page and leaving her a note.
Update, May 9, 4 p.m. MT
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My 30 day ban from Facebook is over today. And this is what my Facebook page looks like. I've "gone dark" for 30 more days. I'll be posting once a day to explain. This is what I said this morning:
Now, while I'm busy tilting at Facebook windmills, Time Magazine is provoking the world with this cover photo illustrating a series of articles on attachment parenting.
Forbes media tech writer Jeff Bercovici was fast off the mark with this assessment: "Here's why Facebook is OK with Time's Breasfeeding Cover" Apparently he believes that Facebook fixed its problem after global protests and a meeting with Emma Kwasnica, and it's all good now.
Emma picked herself off the floor after laughing and wrote back:
My 30 day ban from Facebook is over today. And this is what my Facebook page looks like. I've "gone dark" for 30 more days. I'll be posting once a day to explain. This is what I said this morning:For the last 30 days Facebook has kept me from sharing and liking. They took away my ability to interact with my friends and family on Facebook. Because I liked and shared a picture a friend posted of her baby, asleep at her breast. I've decided to go dark for 30 days to protest Facebook's 30-day suspension of my account. Facebook NEEDS all of us to "share" and "like" in order for their business model to work. I'm opting out for the next 30 days.
Now, while I'm busy tilting at Facebook windmills, Time Magazine is provoking the world with this cover photo illustrating a series of articles on attachment parenting.
Forbes media tech writer Jeff Bercovici was fast off the mark with this assessment: "Here's why Facebook is OK with Time's Breasfeeding Cover" Apparently he believes that Facebook fixed its problem after global protests and a meeting with Emma Kwasnica, and it's all good now.
Emma picked herself off the floor after laughing and wrote back:
"This is quite humorous. Today, Forbes says it thinks Facebook won't delete the TIME Mag photo, because Forbes appears to actually believe that Facebook only takes down photos where the child is not actively engaged in nursing (because that's what Facebook says it does). In other words, Forbes thinks I *was* successful back in February at getting Facebook to fix how they treat users who post BF pics. O_oOh, I am having a laugh. NOTHING could be further from the truth. NOTHING has been fixed, women are still being harassed --left, right and centre. :/" - Emma KwasnicaI sent in a note, too. Silly Forbes. This headline: "Here is why Facebook is OK with Time's Breastfeeding Cover....But Will Delete it Anyway" would have nailed it.
Update, May 8, 10 a.m. MT
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I have a couple of interesting developments in the news about Facebook today to report. They are not specifically about Facebook and breastfeeding, but they are very much related.
The first is a TechCrunch report on journalist and tech startup guru Robert Scoble, who was prevented from posting a comment in a thread by Facebook. Censorship? FB says no, Scoble just got caught up in a spam bot. Sound familiar? This is what I said about it on Facebook this a.m.:
"For every Robert Scoble, Roger Ebert, (or Emma Kwasnica) with a high profile lots of supporters and the ability to get mainstream or social media coverage, there are thousands of others who are harmed by Facebook's actions and have no recourse. If the rest of us want to live in Facebook's world without sanction we find increasingly we need to modify *our* behaviour. And that means less sharing, less commenting, less liking... less of the things Facebook WANTS and NEEDS us to do to sell advertising."
The second is a WorldNetWeekly report, picked up by the Daily Mail, on how child pornographers use Facebook to distribute their content. Many of us who have encountered Facebook's harassment over sharing breastfeeding photos are convinced we are the inadvertent victims of Facebook's attempts to keep its network from being used to distribute child porn.
Is inadvertent the right word? I'm not sure, it feels more like indifference, or impotence, perhaps.
At some point, Facebook is going to harm too many innocent users in its attempts to regulate its network, and users will stop doing what Facebook needs them to do to stay alive.
At some point, Facebook is going to harm too many innocent users in its attempts to regulate its network, and users will stop doing what Facebook needs them to do to stay alive.
Business and page owners, breastfeeding supporters, and Facebook Moms have told me they self-censor after they have experienced a picture deletion or an account block. This means they don't post perfectly legitimate images of breastfeeding - images Facebook welcomes: "We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful, and we're very glad to know that it is important for mothers to share their experiences with others on Facebook.
These users are self-censoring because don't want to fall victim again to Facebook's sloppy follow-through and arbitrary sanctions. These users know there is nothing they can do short of calling the news media - which disrupts their lives and their families' lives entirely, and exposes them to further bullying, harassment, and intimidation through scathing anonymous comments, emails, and PMs about their personal appearance or their parenting choices.
They are doing less sharing, they are more wary, they are blocking users, they are paring down their friends lists, they are not liking pages and commenting publicly - all because they fear future sanctions from you.
Business owners providing services to breastfeeding moms are reconsidering whether they want to build their businesses around your Business Page model. Non-profit and volunteer breastfeeding advocacy groups are discussing the same issues - what is the downside to a Facebook presence, and how can much should we "hedge" by building up a presence on other social networks?
How do the advertisers who are trying to reach Facebook Moms feel about that?
Facebook! If you assign a Facebook Team to Breastfeeding, you will go a long way towards restoring confidence in your social network. These problems can be solved.
Update, May 5, 8 p.m. MT
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Daily Rollcall of Facebook Shame
Really, I'm back to daily updates. I hope it's only temporary.
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This is the message I get when I try to use Facebook.
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- Lynsey Bartram, HM4HB-UK admin, has been given a 7-day suspension for the Guardian montage that she shared over a month ago.
- Cherie Raymond is on Day 2 of her 2nd 30-day suspension from Facebook.
- I have 4 days and 12 hours left in my 30-day suspension, Facebook helpfully tells me.
Update, May 4, 10 a.m. MT
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Further to Cherie Raymond's latest 30-day suspension from Facebook for sharing breastfeeding art: Andrew Noyes, I'm asking you for help! |
| Paul Cezanne, "Hortense Breast Feeding Paul", 1872, deleted from Cherie Raymond's page. She received a 30-day suspension for sharing this. |
Last week you told SF Weekly the account suspension of Diana Cornwall over images of her son participating in the Special Olympics was an error and you invited her to re-upload the photos and to continue sharing. You said the same thing about the removal of a page for a dating service. Eye rolling and sighs of frustration could be seen and heard from those of us working hard to convince your company to fix its breastfeeding image deletions problem.
Breastfeeding moms and their supporters have been hearing empty apologies from Facebook for months, for a problem that dates back years. We have reuploaded photos and shared them, only to have them removed again, and again. We are still being harassed, bullied, intimated, and our accounts are being suspended.
It happened again today.
Cherie Raymond, suspended now for 30 days for sharing Cézanne's 1872 painting of his son being breastfeed, was also suspended for 30 days in February for sharing our media notice with a photo Facebook encouraged Emma Kwasnica to reupload after you apologized for its removal.
Empty apologies do not make good public policy.
Andrew, you are a respected journalist and communicator. You are the public policy communications manager for Facebook. Your website description of your job is to provide:
"liaison between the corporate communications department and partners on state, federal, international public policy"
We are calling on your company to assign a Facebook Team to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding advocates can't afford to spend millions of dollars on ads and promotions. Small business owners - lactation consultants in private practice, bloggers, independent educators - do most of the work to support breastfeeding. They are aided by volunteers and non-profit organizations like La Leche League, the US Breastfeeding Committee, the World Alliance of Breastfeeding Associations. A Facebook Team would allow your company to develop appropriate policies that truly support breastfeeding. The Facebook Team could move quickly to fix user accounts when they are suspended in error. They could remove unfair black marks placed against accounts in error.
We are calling on Facebook to reinstate Cherie Raymond's account immediately and reset her back to zero, so she isn't permanently disabled the next time some troll reports a breastfeeding image.
I am looking forward to hearing from you. -- Jodine Chase
Update, May 4, 8 a.m. MT
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| Paul Cezanne, "Hortense Breast Feeding Paul", 1872, deleted from Cherie Raymond's page. She received a 30-day suspension for sharing this. |
Update, May 1, 10 a.m. MT
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How are breastfeeding advocates and businesses which provide support and service to breastfeeding moms on Facebook dealing with deletion of breastfeeding images and suspensions and sanctions placed on accounts of people who share them?
Kate Gulbransen, who does social media for breast pump maker Hygeia, heard back from a Facebook contact about the decision to delete the famous Oreo cookie breastfeeding ad that went viral a few weeks ago:
"The photo that you sent does not violate Facebook's Terms of Service, and it was removed in error. I've been told to encourage you to re-upload the photo – unfortunately it's not possible for Facebook to do this, so it's up to you to replace the photo. Unfortunately, it's possible that the photo will be removed again if it's flagged by a member of the public as inappropriate. I'm really sorry that this happened, and I hope it doesn't happen again!"Sound familiar? This is similar to what Emma Kwasnica was told - and she did re-upload her sanctioned photos, and they were taken down again - one Facebook user, Beautiful Breastfeeding page admin Cherie Raymond, was sanctioned for 30 days for sharing a media notice with one of Emma's photos in it.
How can Kate effectively manage Hygeia's social networking activities if she has to worry about being banned from Facebook, or worse, having her employer's page arbitrarily sanctioned, for sharing breastfeeding photos?
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| Valerie Smith and her daughter Lily. |
This isn't just a simple case of someone not liking a photo and reporting it to Facebook and having it be removed in error. This is a deliberate targeting of breastfeeding images. I suspect Facebook uses image recognition software to remove other copies of images deemed unacceptable. Valerie was also required to go through her account and remove photos Facebook felt may be sexually explicit. She wrote on her page:
So i was banned AGAIN from FB for a picture where Lily was sleeping on my breast. There was no nipple or areola showing at all. So I was told to go through all my pics and delete any picture that are related to breastfeeding even if no nipple or areola are showing! So i did. However I am confused bc their are women wearing bikini tops that show all of their breast except their nipple and they are allowed to post tose along with butt shots of them wearing G-string! FB had placed breastfeeding in their sexual content group. If anyone thinks of BF'ing as sexual then they are perverted!!!Valerie is being harassed and bullied by Facebook for sharing this image.
This is wrong on many levels, but what makes me really angry is this. Since I have become her friend on Facebook and listened to her story, Valerie Smith has become one of my breastfeeding heroes. Valerie successfully breastfed her daughter Lily despite the challenges of fertility problems that made it hard for her just to conceive and carry Lily to term. With little support she breastfed after breast reduction surgery despite being told she would not be able to. She is such a strong and proud mom, and she wants to educate other people so they don't struggle the way she did. How can she do this when she hears I received a 30-day sanction for sharing this picture of her precious Lily falling asleep at her breast?
Valerie Smith is not a blogger, she is not active on twitter, and she doesn't use her Facebook account to educate others about her breastfeeding and fertility problems. But she has a voice. She has written up her story and I will be sharing it here in this space, and on the FB! Stop Harassing...page.
Facebook! You are harming women, you are harming babies, and you are harming your own network. It's time to put step up with adequate resources into protect and support breastfeeding on Facebook.
Update, April 20, 11 a.m. MT
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Take a look at mainstream media's inability to decide if it's ok to show a baby at the breast as they fall all over each other to cover the breaking news that an Oreo cookie breastfeeding ad has gone viral. |
| Todays' Parent loves it. |
Facebook appears to be trying to be somewhat transparent with its standards for displaying breastfeeding images. Facebook says it looks to mainstream media for guidelines. Well, mainstream media, you're not doing so well here.
I've written about the Facebook's squeamishness about displaying breastfeeding images that have appeared in the Guardian - they got so excited about the photos accompanying a recent article on photographer Nan Goldin article they even banned links to the Guardian article.
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| Gawker covered up |
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| HuffPo showed it |
Some show the ad, others cover up. ABC censored it, along with Gawker (really?!) and TMZ (pfft!) NBC showed it, as did HuffPo and Today's Parent, although HuffPo did generate a censored version.
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| Wait, HuffPo is conflicted - sometimes it's censored, other times not |
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| MSNBC shows it |
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| ABC censors it. |
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| TMZ can't handle it. |
Update, April 19, 11 a.m. MT
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| Oreo cookie ad removed from Hygeia's Facebook page. |
Yesterday this Korean Oreo cookie ad went viral. Last night Facebook removed it from the page of Hygeia, an ethical, eco-friendly company that sells products to help breastfeeding moms.
When I say went viral, I mean, it was posted ALL OVER THE PLACE and MILLIONS OF PEOPLE were exposed to the image.Two images, really. Breastfeeding, and Oreo.
Breastfeeding support pages that serve Facebook Moms all report thousands of likes and shares and hundreds and hundreds of comments in less than 24 hours. Many people were thrilled that breastfeeding was shown in a normal, ordinary way by a major advertiser. In the comments section there was little controversy over the image of breastfeeding... only questions as to whether such a small baby should be eating a cookie - and most of those comments were tongue-in-cheek.
On our wee page, FB! Stop Harassing..., Facebook's Insights statistics report a reach of almost 6,000 Facebook users in 12 hours. Our post had over 80 shares and almost 400 likes as of this morning. Facebook's Insights tell us our page has a potential reach of 2 million Facebook users. Hygeia's page is about the same size and they report this image had reached almost 18,000 people according to FB Insights.
That was before Facebook removed the image from Hygeia's page.
The image was also shared on The Leaky B@@b and KellyMom - those pages both have around 50,000 people receiving their updates. And many, many other pages and individuals have shared this image. Millions and millions of people have been exposed to Breastfeeding and Oreo through the sharing of this image on Facebook. It's been a very successful viral ad campaign for Oreo...
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| Hygeia, is small, green, ethical company. Facebook is harassing them over breastfeeding images. |
The image was also shared on The Leaky B@@b and KellyMom - those pages both have around 50,000 people receiving their updates. And many, many other pages and individuals have shared this image. Millions and millions of people have been exposed to Breastfeeding and Oreo through the sharing of this image on Facebook. It's been a very successful viral ad campaign for Oreo...
The Oreo ad does not violate Facebook's guidelines for breastfeeding images. The baby is actively nursing at the breast shown in the image. But, as usual, Facebook isn't really in control of its network and it just can't keep these images from going down. They have been telling reporters and others who inquire that this is a problem that was happening earlier this year but had been resolved. Clearly, Facebook is wrong - deletions are continuing to happen. This video shows recent deletions and suspensions in January, February, and March 2012, and since it was made March 18, there have been more deletions and suspensions.
If you've been following my blog updates on the Facebook v. Breastfeeding situation since early January, you will know that I have been calling for Facebook advertisers to step up and tell Facebook to get onside on this issue and to truly support breastfeeding:
On February 1st, frustrated with continued breastfeeding image deletions and Facebook's claim they couldn't keep it from happening, I wrote:
Facebook is offering up moms to advertisers. They convince advertisers their dollars are well-spent on Facebook because they can access us precisely through Facebook's targeting system. This is what company COO Sheryl Sandberg said about Facebook and its appeal to advertisers:
On February 27th Facebook Moms in New York City held a protest outside fMC, the Facebook marketing conference, appealing to advertisers to call on Facebook to stand up and truly support breastfeeding.Before they spend precious advertising dollars on Facebook, businesses will want to be reassured that Facebook actually has control of its network and is going to do what it says it is going to do.
"Marketers have always wanted you know personal relationships with consumers or relationships where consumers do two things, consumers buy their products and consumers tell their friends that they buy their products. Marketers have always been looking for that person who’s not just going to buy but spread the word to their friends. What we do on Facebook is we now enable marketers to find that and then if I do it on Facebook I’m sharing with an average of 130 people. And so it becomes a word of mouth marketing at scale, so people can tell each other what they like which is for marketers the thing they’ve been looking for I think for a long time."
Sheryl Sandberg's Facebook page.
On April 11, on the second day of my latest ban from Facebook (30 days this time), I called for Facebook to assign a Facebook Team to Breastfeeding.
"Facebook assigns a Facebook team to keep major advertisers happy. A Facebook Team needs to be assigned to Breastfeeding. Breastfeeding advocates can't afford to spend millions of dollars on ads and promotions. Small business owners - lactation consultants in private practice, bloggers, independent educators - do most of the work to support breastfeeding. They are aided by volunteers and non-profit organizations like La Leche League or the World Alliance of Breastfeeding Associations. A Facebook Team would allow appropriate policies that truly support breastfeeding to be developed. The Facebook Team could move quickly to fix user accounts when they are suspended in error. They could remove unfair black marks placed against accounts in error.Now I'm calling on Facebook's major advertisers to show respect for the influential mom demographic they are so eager to reach.
It's time for a Facebook advertisers to stand up for Breastfeeding. It's time for Facebook to assign a Facebook Team to Breastfeeding."
Small advertisers like Hygeia have big hearts and very loyal Facebook fans...but they alone do not have the clout to convince Facebook to truly fix this problem. They deal with the same 'bots when they place their ads as the rest of us. A company can spend $100,000 on a Facebook ad campaign and still won't have a Facebook Team assigned to its account.
But you'd better believe Nabisco World, the owner of the Oreo Brand, has enough clout to have a Facebook Team.
Sure, advertisers like Hygeia could band together and add up their combined clout and turn it into numbers that Facebook understands like "total likes" and "friends of fans" and "weekly reach." Breastfeeding supporters and advocates could take the pages they run and band together and measure their combined clout using Facebook's language.
This would be a tremendous tax on the resources of a lot of good people - small business owners, non-profit organizations, and volunteers.
Where are the major advertisers in this? Does Nabisco World truly want to be associated a company that appears to prefer to rather align itself with bullies, intimidators, and harassers, instead of standing up for and supporting moms?
Update, April 11, 8 a.m. MT
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It's Day 2 of my 30-day block from Facebook - the fourth time in 3 months Facebook has sanctioned my account. Each block has been a little different. Sometimes I'm locked out of my account altogether. Sometimes I can read but not post at all. Sometimes I can initiate messages in private groups but not in public. Sometimes (this time) I can send and receive Personal Messages. Sometimes I can click "like" (not this time.) Several times the block has been for longer than Facebook has said - my most recent 7 day block lasted 11 days. This time when I click "like" on a post or page a message comes up telling me how much time is left in my block - this morning it helpfully told me I have 29 days and 1 hour left in my latest Facebook detention period. Just about every time I have had a block Facebook has referred me to their community standards – a document that I understand people who have been blocked in the UK can't even read. This is what it says on breastfeeding:Nudity and Pornography
Facebook has a strict policy against the sharing of pornographic content and imposes limitations on the display of nudity. At the same time, we aspire to respect people’s right to share content of personal importance, whether those are photos of a sculpture like Michelangelo's David or family photos of a child breastfeeding.
Here's a reprise of the images I've been blocked for sharing. You can read the details of each of my personal bans and what was happening at the time by scrolling down through this update blog post to the relevant update dates below.
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| 30 day block, April 10, 2012. This is an image that showed up in my feed and I clicked the "share" button months ago.
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| My first block was a 24 hour suspension, followed immediately by an indefinite block, for sharing Emma Kwasnica's photo, above. Facebook later apologized to Emma for removing this photo and issuing a 3 day block on her account, but a number of other women were sanctioned for sharing photos Facebook invited Emma to re-upload. During my indefinite block I was given a selection of photos Facebook determined to be pornographic or indecent and I asked to select them for removal. I had to appeal through a 'bot process, and I was down for 4 days total. |
I have a (gasp!) backup Facebook account which I use when my main account has been sanctioned. I have been issued a warning and two bans on that account for these images:
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| This is the famous montage put together by The Guardian. They promised readers they'd challenge Facebook's breastfeeding policy by posting submitted images on Facebook, but instead they posted this montage on Tumblr. It has been widely circulated on Facebook ever since and is frequently removed. I received a 3 day ban on my backup account on April 10th, the same day my 30 day ban was issued on my main account, for sharing it at some point in early or mid-March. |
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| I received a 24 hour suspension March 18th for sharing this image as an admin on the page FB! Stop Harassing... which mounted the exhibition 24 Hours of Facebook Breastfeeding Censorship March 18-19. Three admins were sanctioned for mounting this exhibition. |
The bare breast with nipple exposed and exposed areolas seem to be the biggest problem for Facebook. Breastfeeding eductors have repeatedly asked Facebook not to censor images of a bare breast when breastfeeding is clearly involved in the photo. There are many reasons why a bare breast would be shown - especially in the case of newborn photos where the baby is being placed skin-to-skin on the mother's chest and breasts are bared to facilitate the first, baby-led latch. No mother should be worried about covering up at this time, and the use of such photos is a valuable educational tool.
Facebook has been responsive to some of our requests - they have reworded their policy several times to address our concerns - changing the word baby to child, for example, and removing the sanction of an exposed areola. But staff aren't following the policy, and the policy is still confusing. They still take down pictures that are allowed under their policy.
Facebook assigns a Facebook team to keep major advertisers happy. A Facebook Team needs to be assigned to Breastfeeding. Breastfeeding advocates can't afford to spend millions of dollars on ads and promotions. Small business owners - lactation consultants in private practice, bloggers, independent eductors - do most of the work to support breastfeeding. They are aided by volunteers and non-profit organizations like La Leche League or the World Alliance of Breastfeeding Associations. A Facebook Team would allow appropriate policies that truly support breastfeeding to be developed. The Facebook Team could move quickly to fix user accounts when they are suspended in error. They could remove unfair black marks placed against accounts in error.
Facebook could show the world it means it when it says:
We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful, and we're very glad to know that it is important for mothers to share their experiences with others on Facebook.
Facebook has a chance to rise to the call to action issued by the U.S. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last year:
I recall my own cherished memories of breastfeeding, and I am grateful for the help and support I received, especially when I went back to work as a young mother. I am also aware that many other mothers are not able to benefit from the support I had. As Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, I urge all Americans to be supportive of breastfeeding mothers and families in their communities and to extend their support so that these mothers get the health care, the help, and the encouragement they deserve.
Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Facebook can align itself with national and international health organizations, from the World Health Organization on down, and support breastfeeding mothers. It can heed the public call to fix this problem from organizations like the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, the Ontario Lactation Consultants Association, the UK's largest parenting charity, the NCT, and many prominent breastfeeding advocates, authors, and health care professionals.
Or it can continue to pay lip service to the issue, telling news media reporters who call that the problem has been fixed, marginalizing people working for cause by suggesting they represent an extreme view, all the while aligning itself with bullies, intimidators and harassers of breastfeeding women.
Update, April 10, noon, MT
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Facebook has issued a 30 day block on my account for this photo. You can reach me through email, jchase@mediaworkswest.com. -- Jodine Chase
(PS - Now that Facebook has purchased Instagram there is interest in whether it will change either network's breastfeeding images policies and actions. I'm looking for people who were involved in the negotiations with Instagram over their supporting policy involving breastfeeding images - if you were one of those people, please do contact me via the email address above! Thanks. - Jodine)
Update, April 6, noon, MT
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Rollcall of Facebook Shame
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| The message you will receive if you try to share this article on Facebook |
That Facebook-banned breastfeeding photo by Nan Goldin, part of a feature that ran in The Guardian last year? Now, you can't even share a link to the article on Facebook. You get a warning when you try to post the link - Facebook tells you it has been blocked for being "spammy", or perhaps "unsafe." Guardian editor Sarah Phillips has confirmed article ran in both the print and online editions of the paper in July, 2011. Facebook says they look to mainstream print and television for their guidelines on what photos to allow and what photos to reject.
Update, April 5, noon, MT
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Rollcall of Facebook Shame
Sabrina Vital, Murielle Bourbau, Denise Sumpter, and Julie Johnston have all been sanctioned by Facebook over breastfeeding in recent days. In each case Facebook has acted in error and in violation of its own policy welcoming the sharing of breastfeeding images. And a professional photograph that ran in the Guardian in July 2011 as part of a feature on Photographer Nan Goldin has been removed this morning from multiple Facebook accounts.
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| From the Guardian article by Sarah Phillips, "One of Nan Goldin's Best Shots" |
Here are the details of the latest examples of Facebook's harassment, intimidation, and bullying:
Two days ago Sabrina Vital had her account suspended for posting this photograph. It's a well-known photo and was featured in an exhibit held by 60 Indian photo-journalists at the Lalit kala Academy in New Dehli in 2010.
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| From Wonderwoman.InToday.In. |
Murielle Bourbau posted a notice on Sabrina Vital's page explaining her disappearance from Facebook for 24 hours. Murielle has had her account suspended for three days with only this notice - apparently Facebook has sanctioned her for sharing... her name??? Murielle, who is the Human Milk 4 Human Babies - France administrator, has already been sanctioned for sharing breastfeeding photos several times including the photo Facebook removed from Emma Kwasnica's account. Facebook offered an apology to Emma and invited her to re-upload the photo. But other people who have shared the photo have been suspended and that black mark remains on their account, resulting in escalating action by Facebook's 'bots.
Denise Sumpter is also someone who has been subjected to escalating suspensions. She has been suspended for sharing the same photo Sabrina Vital shared - for 30 days!
This is one of the issues we want Facebook to fix - we want a Facebook Team who will respond quickly when accounts are suspended in error, and we want Facebook to reset our accounts so we are not subjected to escalating penalties when even Facebook agrees we have done nothing wrong.
On April 1st, - April Fool's Day! - Julie Johnson had this photo removed.
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| This photo of Julie Johnson breastfeeding her newborn was removed by Facebook on April 1, 2012 |
She has decided to set up a Facebook community to celebrate breastfeeding, in response:
I had this photo removed from my FB account this morning and was made to read a huge thing (that you can scroll through, thank goodness! :) about porn, self harm, violence and all this other BS because of it. %^&%$#@!!!!! However, I did find this group and start a "Community" (a "Like" page) called Boobfood:https://www.facebook.com/
Update, March 26, 8 am., MT
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Rollcall of Facebook Shame
Last Thursday a well-known Los Angeles area lactation consultant and doula, Christy Jo Hendricks, found her entire business operation on Facebook gone, poof, vanished. Christy Jo tells the story very well on her blog, and CBS covered the story as well. Although Facebook didn't identify which of Christy Jo's photos were the cause of their warning about sexual explicit material, this is the last photo she uploaded, from one of her breastfeeding cafes. This is completely typical of the kind of photo Christy Jo had up on her page.
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| Last photo uploaded to Christy Jo Hendricks' page before Facebook shut her down. |
Christy Jo is a well-connected and well-supported professional who knew she had to immediately mobilize support on Facebook and contact mainstream media to pressure Facebook to reinstate her pages which have several thousand fans and have a regular reach in the hundreds of thousands. After a few calls to Facebook's media team from news outlets Christy Jo was contacted by Facebook to rectify the error.
What happened to Christy Jo also happens to other women who do not have the resources to fight Facebook to get their accounts back. These are some comments from the FB! Stop Harassing... page survey from women whose photos were removed. This is how they said they felt:
It made me feel that providing breast milk to my child from my breast was an act seen as wrong and immoral.
Discriminated against, powerless.
Heartbroken.
Discouraged.
I was afraid it would hurt my reputation.
Heartbroken, censored, unimportant, ugly, hated.
It is unacceptable for Facebook to respond to the problems they create when they remove these photos in error only if we get outraged, raise a stink, and call mainstream media for coverage. Facebook has made some changes to try to fix the problem - they have improved their policy, informed their staff, and apologized for the errors... and still the removals and suspensions keep happening. Facebook told Emma Kwasnica and the group of us gathered at Menlo Park at the Feb 6th nurse-in that they are "working on it" but they're not yet able to solve the problem completely. We have been asking for a Facebook Team to be assigned to breastfeeding to help people who find their accounts suspended or disabled when they flag these photos in error.
Facebook. Do the right thing. Assign a Facebook Team so you can quickly make it right when mothers, breastfeeding educators and advocates, and business owners are impacted by your breastfeeding photo removals.
Update, March 22, 2:45 pm., MT
----------------------------------
Rollcall of Facebook Shame
- Cherie Raymond, who runs the page Beautiful Breastfeeding, has been given another 30 day suspension for putting a breastfeeding image on Facebook. Go check out her magnificent blog, where she has all kinds of beautiful breastfeeding images, including this one:
- Morgan Gallagher - has just discovered a number of images and blog posts related to the Facebook breastfeeding censorship issue deleted from her blog, hosted by Google's Blogger service. Wherever a picture was removed, Google left behind this image instead:
You can read about it and see the images that were removed on her blog, One of those women. Did I just go back-up this blog? You bet.
You can read about it and see the images that were removed on her blog, One of those women. Did I just go back-up this blog? You bet.
Update, March 20, 5 a.m., MT
----------------------------------
Daily Rollcall of Facebook Shame
- Lynsey Bartram has been banned for 3 days.
- Denise Sumpter has a 7 day ban.
- I am serving a 7 day ban, and a 24 hour ban on a backup account.
All three of us were involved Sunday and Monday of this week in staging a Facebook exhibit of the photo collection "24 Hours of Facebook Breastfeeding Censorship." The Facebook page FB! Stop Harassing... shared one banned image per hour over a 24 hour period, March 18/19, 2012. Facebook removed Hour 10 on March 18. Hour 24 was removed on March 19. Hours 1-9 and 11-23 are still up on the page.
Both banned images are acceptable under Facebook's own guidelines.
Update, March 19, 2 p.m., MT
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24 Hours of Facebook Breastfeeding Censorship
The FB! Stop Harassing page is hosting a collection of banned Facebook images, "24 Hours of Facebook Breastfeeding Censorship." We shared one banned image per hour over a 24 hour period, March 18/19, 2012. These bans occurred very recently, in January, February and March 2012.
Virgen de la Leche (Virgin of the Milk), (1445-1520) removed from Sharlene Carlson's Facebook account, January 11, 2012.
Hour 2: Tara Bercier of Winnipeg had this photo removed from her profile in January, 2012
Hour 3: This is one of the breastfeeding images Emma Kwasnica was banned for sharing. Facebook offered an apology and urged Emma to re-upload it. Since then, this photo has been removed from numerous other accounts and several people have received account suspensions for sharing it. Jan-Mar 2012
Hour 4: Danelle Frisbie was suspended from Facebook for sharing WORDS about breastfeeding in February, 2012.
Hour 5: Jenni Cowey had this photo removed and was warned to stick to the rules or else. She put it back up along with Facebook’s Breastfeeding Images policy to show she did not break the rules. January, 2012
Hour 6: Nicole Miller was banned from Facebook for 21 days for sharing this image in January, 2012.
Hour 7: Cherie Raymond, admin of Beautiful Breastfeeding, was banned from Facebook for 30 days for sharing the media notice of the February 6th worldwide protests calling on Facebook to leave breastfeeding alone. She wasn’t allowed back on Facebook until early March, 2012. The note includes this photo banned “in error” from Emma Kwasnica’s Facebook account.
Hour 8: Rosina Jane Fortier came home one day in February, 2011 and this photo had been removed from her account.
Hour 9: This image from Jacqui Gruttadauria was banned and she was given a 7 day account suspension Jan/Feb, 2012. This is her fifth child, immediately after a breech birth, about to latch on for the first time.
Hour 10: Amy McNally’s account was suspended for 24 hours for sharing this photo in February, 2012
Hour 11: This image “Dani mothers breastfeeding their infants”, taken in the Baliem Valley Irian Jaya New Guinea Indonesia, by Gerald Stanley Cubitt, Photographer was removed March 14, 2012, from Shana Ritter’s account, along with a second image of an indigenous South American woman breastfeeding. Shana’s account was disabled indefinitely, pending appeal.
Hour 12: This montage by the Guardian, put together to challenge Facebook’s breastfeeding rules, has been removed repeatedly from various Facebook accounts. Two of the three individual images in the montage with an exposed nipple have also been removed. The third appears to have escaped detection. February-March, 2012
Hour 13: Jacqui Gruttadauria was blocked from Facebook for seven days, preventing her from updating her family about her mother’s battle with a terminal illness. Her account was restored but the deletions continue – this image was taken down towards the end of January, 2012.
Hour 14: Claire Gibson’s daughter’s first attempt at a feed, just a few minutes after birth. She submitted this photo, already removed once, to the “Hey Guardian! Too scared to put these breastfeeding pics up on FB” page on February 24, 2012.
Hour 15: Rashel Trembley had this photo removed and her account suspended in January, 2012 for sharing this image.
Hour 16: Emma Kwasnica’s public statement in response to Facebook’s offer of an apology was taken down by Facebook on Jan 13, 2012.
Hour 17: This photograph of Caroline Gauthier breastfeeding her son created a sensation and was shared thousands of times on Facebook, which prompted Facebook to temporarily shut down her account. The photo was also removed in February, 2012, from a Saskatchewan LLL page.
Hour 18: While Facebook was scrutinizing Caroline Gauthier’s account over her famous motocross breastfeeding photo (See Hour 17), they found this image and removed it.
Hour 19: This photo is from the Facebook Page Worldwide Movement against Belo Monte dam project in Amazonia. It has been removed from that page, and from a number of other Facebook accounts in Feb. and March, 2012.
Hour 20: Facebook suspended Shana Ritter’s account indefinitely and told her in order to get it back she had to select for removal photos identified by Facebook as sexually explicit. This was one of them. March 14, 2012
Hour 21: Desirae Dubisky and her son. Photo by Jeanita Kennedy. Removed by Facebook from both accounts in January, 2012.
Hour 22: This image was removed from Daleen Bybee’s page, which she uses to promote breastfeeding and other causes, in January, 2012.
Hour 23: This tandem nursing photo of Stella Onions was banned in January, 2012.
Hour 24: Facebook banned this photo of Laureen Gamba breastfeeding her daughter Harley Grace outside Facebook’s Austin, Texas offices on February 6th. Yes, Grace is wearing a Facebook hat handed out by a Facebook employee at the protest.
Update, March 19, 8 a.m. MT
----------------------------------
The FB! Stop Harassing page is hosting a collection of banned Facebook images, "24 Hours of Facebook Breastfeeding Censorship." We are sharing one banned image per hour. These bans occurred very recently, in January, February and March 2012. Facebook would have you think these sorts of bans happen rarely and only when the images are sexually explicit, pornographic, or displaying culturally inappropriate nudity. That is not true. Take a look and see what kinds of breastfeeding photos Facebook is removing. Several of the entries are public/media statements, one is entirely text. |
This photo by Amy McNally was
removed from the "24 Hours of Facebook
Censorship" collection running on
FB! Stop Harassing... this morning.
|
Twenty-one of the images in the collection are very clearly within Facebook's ambiguous guidelines for acceptable breastfeeding images, found not in its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, but in this entry on its Help Centre:
Of the remaining three, two are indigenous women who are breastfeeding in public in a way that is normal and natural in their culture and both are of a type commonly carried in print media. One of the images is a montage of the 10 pictures The Guardian - one of the worlds largest newspapers - choose to feature in their online edition and on their Facebook page to challenge of Facebook's rules. Three images in the montage show an exposed nipple. Two of the three individual images have been removed by Facebook, as has the entire montage. One of the three nipple offenders remains unscathed.Yes. We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful, and we're very glad to know that it is important for mothers to share their experiences with others on Facebook. The vast majority of these photos are compliant with our policies, and we will not take action on them.
Photos that show a fully exposed breast where the child is not actively engaged in nursing do violate Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. These policies are based on the same standards which apply to television and print media.
I will be posting the entire image collection here this afternoon when it finishes running later today.
Update, March 18, 9 a.m. MT
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Daily roll call of Facebook Shame:
 |
| Benetton's 1989 United Colors of Benetton campaign won accolades from around the world including the coveted Lion d'Or at Cannes for creator Oliviero Toscani |
Update, March 16, 1 p.m. MT
----------------------------------
Daily roll call of Facebook Shame:
Oliverio Toscani's famous Benetton ad remains powerful and controversial 23 years later.Two more people and a breastfeeding peer support Facebook page been all been sanctioned for sharing the image.
- Muriel Bourbao has been suspended for 24 hours for sharing the photo in solidarity with fellow HM4HB Global Network admins Lynsey Bartram, Samantha Norman, and Elanor Jemison.
- Denise Sumpter has been suspended for 3 days. Denise also recently had her account blocked over her participation in the Guardian's challenge of Facebook's breastfeeding rules a few weeks ago.
- And the owner of Dispelling Breastfeeding Myths has also been formally blocked from posting on her page for 24 hours, for posted the picture.
- I have also had the ad removed from my personal timeline without sanction or notice - poof! it just disappeared. And it has been removed from the United Colors of Benetton fan page a number of times over the last 48 hours.
The sanction against the Dispelling Breastfeeding Myths page is of particular concern. I know of at least one lactation consultant who was forced off Facebook because of the images she chose to share to illustrate her breastfeeding support advice. Facebook pages like DBM, The Leaky B@@b, Beautiful Breastfeeding, Earthy Motherhood and Analytical Armadillo exist to provide support, information, education and encouragement to breastfeeding women. Facebook highlights and encourages this sort of altruistic use of its social network.
This is a public health issue.
Health care providers say it is vital for Facebook to fix its breastfeeding policy. The UK's largest parenting charity has asked Facebook to fix the problem. Facebook's policy has been revised so many times even its own employees don't know what it says, or how to interpret it. As recently as mid-January a Canadian Facebook pr spokeswoman was telling women to just simply stop sharing breastfeeding photos. Are nipples allowed? We're not sure. What if the areola is showing? Facebook says that's ok, but then it takes down photos with areola. It's ok to have both breasts bare if you are breastfeeding twins... or maybe not... Facebook has taken down photos of women with both nipples covered as they tandem nurse. They routinely take down pictures with no nipple showing at all. They've even taken down breastfeeding photos of women and babies who are completely covered in clothing.
It is not enough just to tinker with the wording. There are many educational reasons for a photo to exist of a woman with a baby at the breast and with the second breast exposed - images showing skin-to-skin placement of the baby immediately after birth, and images of a newborn's first latch are examples. Babies at the breast often latch and unlatch and an exposed nipple in an image should be no more concern than it is in real life. You can't really breastfeed without the nipple. Clothing is a rather significant impediment to skin-to-skin and women in the moments after birth shouldn't have to worry about whether or not their nipple is exposed photographs at the expense of those critically important first hours of uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact. If the image is about breastfeeding, it should be left alone.
Facebook clearly needs expert guidance to help make these determinations. Major advertisers are assigned a Facebook Team. Breastfeeding needs a Facebook Team. A team to train front-line workers. A team to make the RIGHT decisions about breastfeeding images. A team to resolve problems created for users punished inappropriately by Facebook's system.
The Benetton ad debacle just underscores how harmful Facebook's policy really is. As long as an image of a woman who is breastfeeding is routinely considered offensive, and as long as Facebook users are bullied, harassed, intimidated, and punished for sharing such images without any recourse, Facebook's policy will continue to harm breastfeeding.
Facebook, leave breastfeeding alone.
Update, March 15, 2 p.m. MT
----------------------------------
Daily roll call of Facebook Shame:
|
| Benetton's 1989 United Colors of Benetton campaign won accolades from around the world including the coveted Lion d'Or at Cannes for creator Oliviero Toscani |
Today another of the Human Milk 4 Human Babies - UK admins, Lynsey Bartram, had her account suspended for sharing the Benetton breastfeeding ad, and another UK woman, Samantha Norman, had the image removed from her profile.
The image is being widely posted all over Facebook and posters are tagging the United Colours of Benetton Facebook page - either Facebook will give up and let the image stay, or it will get in a huge battle with many many people over taking it down. Stay tuned...
Update, March 14, noon MT
----------------------------------
Roll call of Facebook Shame:
I have received two reports of Facebook accounts being suspended in the last two days. Both are from well-known breastfeeding activists. Both happen to be administrators for their local Human Milk 4 Human Babies pages, one in Germany, and one in the UK. |
| Dani mothers breastfeeding their infants Baliem Valley Irian Jaya New Guinea Indonesia Gerald Cubitt Photographer, geraldcubitt@telkomsa.net Used with permission |
"surprised at the attitude taken by Facebook as this image by no means demeans women and is a true reflection of the normal way of life as lived by the Dani people."
|
| Benetton's 1989 United Colors of Benetton campaign won accolades from around the world including the coveted Lion d'Or at Cannes for creator Oliviero Toscani |
Look familiar? Of course it does. This is the most successful ad in Benetton's history. It received numerous awards including a Lion d'Or for its creator Oliviero Toscani, and it created a sensation never quite duplicated in the history of advertising. Twenty-two years later, some nerd at Facebook who was probably being breastfed himself when the ad debuted, has the temerity to pull it down and punish Elanor Jemison for posted it.
Benetton's annual sales approach $3B/year. The company is hardly a flash in the pan, operates a sophisticated marketing campaign across social media including on Facebook, and is a brand Facebook shouldn't snub.
Facebook can't afford to continue this campaign against Facebook Moms - we are the most sought-after demographic on Facebook. Brands like Benetton know it.
Update, March 8, 8 a.m. MT
----------------------------------
Roll call of Facebook Shame:
 |
A sampling of the images on the Facebook page Beautiful Breastfeeding.
Admin Cherie Raymond has just returned after a 30-day suspension.
|
Beautiful Breastfeeding admin Cherie Raymond was allowed back onto Facebook earlier today after a 30 day suspension for sharing the notice we sent to the media announcing the nurse-ins at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters and around the globe.
 |
This is the media notice Cherie Raymond put up on her
Facebook page. Facebook took it down and suspended her
for 30 days. The notice includes one of the breastfeeding photos
Facebook removed in error. Facebook offered an apology
Which she did. And Cherie Raymond paid the price.
|
Head on over to Cherie's page and welcome her back, and then go check out her beautiful breastfeeding photo exhibits from all over the world. Thank you, Cherie Raymond, for all the work you put into maintaing this page. SHAME ON YOU FACEBOOK for taking this woman and her resource away from us with your ridiculous and arbitrary 30 day suspension over our attempts to alert the media to your wrongdoing.
Also, I just received a report this morning that one of the women involved in the Facebook protest in London on Feb. 6th, Denise Sumpter, has had her Facebook account blocked. Details to follow.
Update, March 1, 10 a.m. MT
----------------------------------
American Express's CEO talked to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg about the success of their Small Business Saturday effort, and in the chat window below thousands of viewers saw:
Small Business Saturday is an example of how companies, and Facebook, can use their powers for good. Facebook, you are offside on this breastfeeding images issue. Use your powers for good. Support bresatfeeding for real. http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=PhEeSEgbbCM The tweets and posts pointed advertisers and marketers to this video, an interview I did with Progressive-Parenting Radio talk show host Gena Kirby. We talk about how "Soccer Moms" have become "Facebook Moms" and the importance of the "influential mom demographic," responsible for the 80 per cent of household purchasing decisions, to advertisers. Check it out!http://www.youtube.com/
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in London the folks over at the Guardian decided to dip their toe in the Facebook v. breastfeeding pond. The admins on the Guardian's "Comment is Free" page put up a couple of breastfeeding images... and of course! Facebook took them down.
I have a big long list of people who have had photos taken down in recent days, among them:
- The Guardian's Comment is Free page
- Canadian author and physician Dr. Jack Newman
- Beautiful Breastfeeding admin Cherie Raymond - STILL BLOCKED from her Facebook account - she received a 30 day suspension
- Me! My account was suspended for the second time, for 3 days. I just got it back yesterday.
I had a conversation about the fMC action with a New York Times reporter who seemed surprised that this was still happening. Apparently Facebook's boilerplate statement, sent out to the media routinely when they cover this issue, is taken at face value:
"The vast majority of breast-feeding pictures posted to Facebook don't break our rules, which everyone can read by looking at our statement of rights and responsibilities, so they remain on our site."This is not true! Look at these pictures, all taken down in recent weeks, all completely within Facebook's current guidelines:
 |
| This photo of Rosina Jane Foriter and her nursling was removed from her Facebook account |
 |
| Caroline Gauthier and her son, removed by Facebook |
 | |
|
 |
| Desirae Dubisky and her son. Photo by Jeanita Kennedy. Removed by Facebook from both accounts. |
Update, February 28, 11 p.m. MT
---------------------------------------------
Progressive Parenting Radio's Gena Kirby interviews Jodine Chase
On Wednesday, Feb. 29th, Facebook is hosting a gala event for
high-powered Madison Avenue advertising and marketing exec
in New York. Facebook Moms will be holding a protest.
Facebook Moms are paying attention to you, Facebook advertisers.
Are you paying attention to us?
Update, February 27, 10 p.m. MT
---------------------------------------------
Facebook Moms poised to flex their muscles, appealing to advertisers and proudly breastfeeding their children in public
Update, February 25, 10 a.m. MT
---------------------------------------------
This morning I woke up to another 3 day suspension from Facebook. I am an admin on the "Hey Guardian! Too scared to put these breastfeeding pics up on FB?" page. The Guardian issued a challenge to Facebook's 'no nipple' policy and invited readers to send in breastfeeding images. They sent hundreds. Then the Guardian chickened out, perhaps not wanting to jeopardize its 308,000-strong Facebook page, and instead put them up on Tumblr. We took them and put them up on Facebook. The result? Predictable. These two images were removed and I received a 3 day suspension. They will be going back up.
This delightful image, the third of the 10 the Guardian put up with obvious nipple exposure, is still there:
It's really hard to tell what Facebook rule is being followed here. Are any of these three children not actively breastfeeding? That's what Facebook's official policy says. Their unofficial leaked document telling subcontractors what should be deleted and what should be left on discusses nipple bumps and breastfeeding without clothes on. There's nipple exposure in the first two, but there is also nipple exposure in the third one which its still up.
We could discuss this until the cows come home. The only obvious solution for Facebook is to change its policy to welcome all breastfeeding photos and to train its staff to leave alone all photos where a woman is obviously breastfeeding a child.
They really should let go of this whole issue and free up their time and resources to deal with the real problems their network faces - illegal distribution of child porn, for example.
Facebook is distracting itself with no-brainer societal issues and instead of behaving ethically and showing leadership, it is consistently coming down on the wrong side of these issues. It took UK advertisers Vodafone and First Direct pulling their ads from Facebook before Facebook offered them the ability to ensure their ads don't show up on neo-nazi pages. And this problem isn't solved. I saw a neo-nazi site the other day, with Facebook's "recommended page" feature offering up pages from Planned Parenthood, the Washington Humane Society, the Portland Zoo, Tropicana, Canada's Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and Dateline NBC page promos prominently displayed:
Now Facebook is in a battle with women over breastfeeding photos. Facebook is in a battle with women over allowing pro-rape pages. Facebook is in a battle with women over the right to display images of their breast cancer surgery results. It is in a battle with women over photographs of their births. Facebook even takes down photos of placentas.
Women are the majority of users on Facebook and they are a valuable demographic to advertisers. Facebook needs to clean up its act. Advertisers need to demand it.
It's really hard to tell what Facebook rule is being followed here. Are any of these three children not actively breastfeeding? That's what Facebook's official policy says. Their unofficial leaked document telling subcontractors what should be deleted and what should be left on discusses nipple bumps and breastfeeding without clothes on. There's nipple exposure in the first two, but there is also nipple exposure in the third one which its still up.
We could discuss this until the cows come home. The only obvious solution for Facebook is to change its policy to welcome all breastfeeding photos and to train its staff to leave alone all photos where a woman is obviously breastfeeding a child.
They really should let go of this whole issue and free up their time and resources to deal with the real problems their network faces - illegal distribution of child porn, for example.
Facebook is distracting itself with no-brainer societal issues and instead of behaving ethically and showing leadership, it is consistently coming down on the wrong side of these issues. It took UK advertisers Vodafone and First Direct pulling their ads from Facebook before Facebook offered them the ability to ensure their ads don't show up on neo-nazi pages. And this problem isn't solved. I saw a neo-nazi site the other day, with Facebook's "recommended page" feature offering up pages from Planned Parenthood, the Washington Humane Society, the Portland Zoo, Tropicana, Canada's Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and Dateline NBC page promos prominently displayed:
 |
Now Facebook is in a battle with women over breastfeeding photos. Facebook is in a battle with women over allowing pro-rape pages. Facebook is in a battle with women over the right to display images of their breast cancer surgery results. It is in a battle with women over photographs of their births. Facebook even takes down photos of placentas.
Women are the majority of users on Facebook and they are a valuable demographic to advertisers. Facebook needs to clean up its act. Advertisers need to demand it.
Update, February 24, 7:30 a.m. MT
---------------------------------------------
The page is already approaching 100 likers and there are dozens of lovely breastfeeding images including the 10 the Guardian chose for its "no nipple" challenge to Facebook but then put up on Tumblr instead.
Meanwhile, over on the Guardian's Facebook page author Ann Sinnott has made public an exchange she's had with Guardian staff over their decision to back out of their challenge.
The Guardian has behaved badly. Ingloriously! And I for one will not forgive you until you adequately redress this, and I am far from alone!
And last but not least, Belinda Phillips, CEO of the UK's largest charity for parents, has issued an open letter calling on Facebook to address this problem.
Belinda Phipps, CEO, NCT (UK's largest charity for parents)
February 24, 2012
Open letter to Facebook
NCT is the UK’s largest charity for parents. Our 318 branches, 10,000 volunteers and 1,000 trained practitioners support thousands of parents-to-be and new parents every year through online and written information, face to face events and courses and a range of helplines. NCT supports parents however they decide to feed their baby. For many people, carrying out the decision to breastfeed can be very difficult and the support of others and a supportive society is essential if a woman is to successfully breastfeed for as long as she wishes. The WHO and 4 UK country Governments recommend exclusively breastfeeding for at least 6 months for optimal child health. Every year more than 200,000 mothers stop breastfeeding in the first few days and weeks - 90% of these mothers would have liked to continue.As a result we were dismayed to read Facebook’s policy regarding posting of some photos of mothers and babies and the actions taken to remove some pictures from Facebook profiles depicting breastfeeding. Feeling proud as a new parent is everyone’s right and Facebook has been a wonderful addition to the range of ways that parents to be and new parents share their joys, concerns and the trials and tribulations of their new roles with their friends and family right across the globe. Women’s breasts come in all shapes and sizes (especially when they are feeding a new baby) and babies feed in many different positions.We would urge Facebook to reverse this decision which relegates breastfeeding to a taboo subject when in fact it is a perfectly natural and common thing to do with 76% of mothers in the UK initiating breastfeeding when their baby is born. Very best wishes Belinda PhippsCEONCT
Update, February 23, 8:30 a.m. MT
---------------------------------------------
Haha! So I guess someone over at the Guardian finally realized you'd be jeopardizing your entire Facebook page with its massive 308,508-fan presence, if you put up the hundreds of breastfeeeding images you received after inviting readers to submit them to test Facebook's 'no nipple' policy. Because yes, that is what Facebook does. It doesn't just delete photos, it suspends accounts and IT TAKES DOWN PAGES. Just ask The Leaky B@@b, Respect The Breast, peaceful parenting, or Emma Kwasnica. So instead the Guardian is putting up the images on a Tumblr page. Ironic, isn't it? Fear of Facebook censoring has the Guardian turning to another social media network. http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Update, February 22, 11:30 p.m.. MT
-----------------------------------------------
I have a HUGE backlog of reports of deleted photos and disabled accounts to report. Meanwhile, the Guardian has challenged Facebook users to offer up breastfeeding images to see if they will be removed from the Guardian's Facebook page.This is my response to the Guardian's offer:
|
| This photo of Rosina Jane Foriter and her nursling was removed from her Facebook account |
You can see dozens of images that have been taken down by Facebook at the blog update page I've been keeping since my own account was suspended for three days for sharing Emma Kwasnica's breastfeeding photo on January 8, 2012. Virtually all of these images were taken down despite the fact they don't violate Facebook's rules-of-the-week. None of them should have been removed. We did a survey and over 500 people answered. 100 per cent of the people who said they had photos taken down said it was done in error. Facebook also suspended one woman's account for 30 days for sharing a news release about the protests held February 6th at Facebook headquarters, and in London, Dublin, Paris, and around the globe. Emma Kwasnica's statement where she said she would accept Facebook's apology when they FIXED the problem was also taken down.
|
| Caroline Gauthier and her son, removed by Facebook |
If Facebook manages to keep rogue employees from deleting the photos you upload, Guardian, that'll be great. It'll be a sign that Facebook are on the road to fixing their problem and regaining control of their network. A rare sign. So far we're seeing no sign of improvement - lots of talk, and yet we hear about deleted images and disabled accounts on a daily basis.
The next step is for Facebook to assign a real live staff person to fix the accounts of the users it suspends in error, until it has sorted through this mess and it is no longer needed. The final step is for Facebook to amend and properly publicize its policies, and explain its processes to users - and to advertisers who want to reach the users affected. Users who happen to belong to one of the most influential demographics Facebook has to offer up. Moms make 80 per cent of the family household spending decisions. This is not news to marketers and advertisers. Facebook knows this. It can't be comfortable for Facebook to have to confront advertisers who are wondering why it can't fix this problem. Advertisers who must also be wondering if Facebook is capable of delivering on the rest of its promises. Imagine, Guardian, if you had a problem at the distribution outlet and failed to delivery your newspaper today to the homes with residents likely to purchase a new car, because someone phoned up anonymously and said they were silly gits, and a rogue staffer responded by deleting them out of your database. On the day Suzuki has taken out a full page ad in your paper. Suzuki would surely question your ability to run a newspaper.
|
| Desirae Dubisky and her son. Photo by Jeanita Kennedy. Removed by Facebook from both accounts. |
Facebook is fast approaching the day where it will be a publicly traded company. It needs to be sensible and transparent. It must convince its users and its advertisers that it is capable of running its network properly. Its content rules must reflect the prevailing sentiment in society, backed by legislation, that breastfeeding women and children are to be free from harassment, discrimination, and bullying - breastfeeding women and children are to be left alone. On Facebook. In the Guardian. And in real life.
Update, February 11, 12 p.m.. MT
-----------------------------------------------
I came across a CBS morning news feature on the issue of Facebook removing breastfeeding images.New York University professor Jeff Jarvis, author of "What Would Google Do?" says although Facebook is privately owned,
"in a sense Facebook is owned by its members and its users...we own the Internet now...a few people complain, and what does Facebook do?"
Andi Silverman, author of "Mama knows Breast," says,
"...people get very attached to their pages, they put up pictures of their kids, they show their kids learning to walk, learning to ride a bike, and of their children breasteeding. This is something they are very proud of, they feel good about it, they want to share with their family and friends...the're astounded that Facebook would take this position..."
Jarvis says,
"...we can't find ourselves in a position in society where we have a least common denominator of acceptability, that anyone can complain about anything and then it is forbidden...especially in the era of the Internet where all of us become publishers and all of us have this right to speak...Facebook finds itself in a position where a few people complain but then tens of thousands of moms complain back and they're stuck in the middle. They have to find the way to find the true community standards and that is not the standard of just a few complainers..."
Silverman says,
"women have the right to breastfeeding in public, they don't have to stay home all day if they choose to breastfeed their kids, why shouldn't they be able to share these pictures?..."
And what's fascinating to me about this? The interview was recorded in December, 2008. Here we are three years later having the same debate.
It's time to move this forward, Facebook. You can't keep saying you welcome these items, and that you only take down a very small number of breastfeeding images.
Facebook, you take down breastfeeding images every single day in error. You apologize, but you can't stop it from happening.
A quick scroll through the images removed since I started keeping this daily update blog 1 month ago shows how ridiculous the situation is. You've removed cartoons showing breastfeeding. You've removed images from paintings that have hung in public galleries for centuries. You remove photos that show less breast than Mr. Rogers displays for children on PBS.
It's time to move beyond empty apologies and inaccurate assertions. It's time to fix the problem, and make it right.
Update, February 10, 2:30 p.m.. MT
-----------------------------------------------
So, let's see, what's new? Conan and Alanis Morissette talk it up, and Respect the Breast is fed up!
Daily roll call of Facebook shame
Respect the Breast is furious. They've recorded a YouTube address to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:
"Time and time again you have removed our breastfeeding photos and claimed they are pornographic..."
"Every day I get a notification saying that you took one of our pictures down. Every day I email you, and I get the same response from a woman named Vicky. Her response is the photos were taken down by accident, they do not violate the terms of service, and they will no longer be taking images down."
Sound familiar? They have five thousand users on their page and they're fed up with breastfeeding images being taken down. Check them out.
Conan talked about this issue last night.
And TMZ asked new mom Alanis Morissette about it.
Update, February 9, 4 p.m.. MT
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Several reports of photo deletions and accounts suspensions came to my attention today. Facebook has not changed the way it operates. The company has reached out to Australian moms and offered apologies for deleting photos, and offered to meet to address concerns. Sound familiar? Facebook, you can't just apologize and then keep doing it over and over and over again. That's abusive: "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I'll try not to do it again." It's time to move from expressions of regret to genuine repentance and making restitution. FIX your problem, regain control of your network. Assign a team of real live people to fix the problems you create for users whose photos and accounts you mess with in error.
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| This photo of Rosina Jane Foriter nursling was removed from her Facebook account |
- Amy McNally was given a 24-hour suspension and told to review her photos or face further sanctions.
- Rosina Jane Fortier came home to a notice that this photo had been removed. She did not receive a suspension notice. This is not the first photo removed from her account.
- Cherie Raymond is still not able to access her Facebook account. she was handed a 30 day suspension for sharing the media notice about the global protests we held Feb 6. at Facebook offices around the world. But then, Facebook's not really all that savvy in the PR department, are they? Earlier this week they gave out Facebook-branded hats to moms and babes at the nurse-ins. And then they took down a photo of Laureen Gamba breastfeeding her Facebook-hat-wearing baby.
I wrote a separate blog post about my trip to Menlo Park to Facebook headquarters Monday - you can see it here: About the day I went to Menlo Park and witnessed Facebook's fledgling PR machine firsthand
Update, February 6, 3 a.m.-11 p.m. MT
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Update, February 5, 5 p.m. MT
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In about 12 hours protests against Facebook's anti-breastfeeding actions will begin in Dublin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Madrid, continuing into North America with New York City, Toronto, Austin, Atlanta, and then Seattle and at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park.
News media are starting to notice - there has been coverage around the world.
In Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald reports a senior politician is calling on Facebook to stop their practices of temporarily banning women who post breastfeeding images. Minister for the Status of Women Gail Gago says there is no reason for any social network to ban "legitimate pictures posted by women of themselves breastfeeding their own children." She says she'll be writing to Facebook's owner Mark Zuckerberg.
Update, February 4, 3 p.m.
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Action needed: Feb 6th, 2012
Facebook, leave breastfeeding alone!
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... protests, rallies, nurse-ins, Sydney is calling their event a boob-out! There are organized events in Dublin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, New York, Toronto, Austin, Seattle, Menlo Park, Sydney (Feb 7), Singapore (Feb 7th), and more! Check the list.
You don't need to be a breastfeeding mother to come out - friends, family, co-workers - everyone who wants Facebook to stop harassing breastfeeding women should come and show Facebook how important this issue is!
Bring your smart-phones and take pictures and videos and upload them to YouTube, Tumblr, InstaGram, Pinterest, Tweet it out, Google+, and of course send them in to us at the FB! Stop Harassing... page! Tell everyone you know to share - use the power of social media to amplify our message: Facebook! Leave breastfeeding alone.
2) Hold your own event in your town...
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... If you don't live in a place where there is a protest, you can still get out and have your say. Call up a few friends and meet for coffee at an Internet cafe or at your public library. Take a smart-phone, take your picture, and share, share, share! Make sure you check in to the FB! Stop Harassing... page and tell us where you are and what you are doing to participate, so we can share out your story. Make good use of all of the social networks you normally use!
3) Virtual protest....
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Change your Facebook status picture - we'll be unveiling a special "badge" for you to use. Share your breastfeeding pictures. Share your pride and joy about breastfeeding your child with your friends, your family, the world! Talk about this issue, talk about the bigger issues of how actions like Facebook's harassment of breastfeeding women are harmful to ALL women, to children, to families, to society. Check in to the virtual protest event page.
4) In real life...
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Talk it up! Everywhere you go, when you are talking to people, talk about this issue and tell people what you will be doing on February 6 (or 7th for those of you on the other side of the International Date Line.) You will be surprised at how many people have heard of this and are supportive. Twice today I encountered people who had heard and are supportive - once in a clothing store where I was picking up a coat for my daughter, the sales clerk, who used to run a babywearing store, was thrilled to be able to ask me to give Emma her best wishes. Today at the bank while I was getting some American cash for my trip to Menlo Park, the teller wanted to know where I was going. When I told her she said, "my sister just had a baby and I think this thing Facebook is doing is ridiculous!" There is a lot of support out there.
Update: Friday, Feb 3, 2 pm MT
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This just in. Facebook has suspended Cherie Raymond's account for 30 days for sharing...
... I couldn't make this stuff up...
... the notice sent to the media about global protests being held at Facebook offices around the world.
That's the subject of our live-chat today with Emma Kwasnica: Facebook #PRFAIL
Facebook can't seem to keep itself from stumbling and crashing to the ground over this breastfeeding images issue. Suspending someone's account FOR 30 DAYS for sharing the notice to media for the nurse-in/boob-out/protests planned for Monday?
Really, Facebook?! Come and tell us what you think. Is Facebook doing this deliberately, or are they just not capable of getting their act together? 5pmET, 2pmPT on Facebook, or right here:
This just in. Facebook has suspended Cherie Raymond's account for 30 days for sharing...
... I couldn't make this stuff up...
... the notice sent to the media about global protests being held at Facebook offices around the world.
Molly Uncensored
World wide protests to call on Facebook to leave breastfeeding photos aloneMedia - Event Notice January 30, 2012 World wide protests to call on Facebook to leave breastfeeding photos alone -...
By: Emma Kwasnica
That's the subject of our live-chat today with Emma Kwasnica: Facebook #PRFAIL
Facebook can't seem to keep itself from stumbling and crashing to the ground over this breastfeeding images issue. Suspending someone's account FOR 30 DAYS for sharing the notice to media for the nurse-in/boob-out/protests planned for Monday?
Really, Facebook?! Come and tell us what you think. Is Facebook doing this deliberately, or are they just not capable of getting their act together? 5pmET, 2pmPT on Facebook, or right here:
Update: Friday, Feb 3, 11:30 am MT
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Daily roll call of Facebook Shame
Today's victim of Facebook harassment wasn't shut down for posting a photo. Her offence was to write her support for people who have been bullied for breastfeeding.
Since then she has been repeatedly harassed by an anonymous bully or bullies, and Facebook is not only allowing it to happen, it is actively participating in the harassment and rewarding her tormenters.
Since then she has been repeatedly harassed by an anonymous bully or bullies, and Facebook is not only allowing it to happen, it is actively participating in the harassment and rewarding her tormenters.
Yesterday, for the second time in less than a month, Danelle Frisbee has had her account suspended for her words. This is what Danelle wrote in support of Emma Kwasnica:
This simply must end. There is zero justification for nursing mothers and breastfeeding advocates to be silenced, blocked and removed from FB. In solidarity with Emma Kwasnica, the founder of the Human Milk 4 Human Babies Global Network, who has been repeatedly at the receiving end of such treatment, join in: http://www.facebook.com/StopHarassingKwasnicaAndALLBreastfeedingWomenThis is what Facebook told Danelle when they suspended her account:
"We removed the content you posted or were the admin of because it violates Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities."
 |
| Support page for Danelle Frisbie - click here for more details |
This sort of thing happens on Facebook every single day. Breastfeeding women – and people who merely speak up to support them – are targeted, harassed, bullied, and intimidated. The anonymous bullies hide behind Facebook - they point the gun, but Facebook pulls the trigger.
What if a group of bullies in school dropped a note by the principal's office, alleging your son or daughter broke school rules. And what if the principal simply glanced at the note and, without any investigation, kept your child in for recess. What if the bullies decided this was a grand success and started dropping notes by every second day. What if the principal just kept escalating the punishments, by the book: half-day in-school suspension, out of school suspension, one-week suspension. What if you complained, the principal apologized, reassuring you your child was welcome in his school, and then said "but there's nothing I can do to keep this from happening?"This isn't high school, Facebook. This is real life. Stop harassing breastfeeding women.
Update: Wednesday, Feb 1, 1:20 pm MT
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All around the globe organizers and supporters are working very hard on the protests, nurse-ins, (the Australians are calling it a boob out, isn't that great?)
There is an event scheduled for February 6th for Menlo Park, at Facebook's HQ. There are also plans for events at Facebook offices in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Austin, TX, Chicago, IL, Detroit, MI, Dublin, London , Madrid, New York City, Paris, France, Seattle, Singapore, Sydney, and Toronto. If you are in any of the cities and are able to attend, please come down to show your support. You don't have to be breastfeeding to support the women in your lives who are! If you can't attend, raise your voice and tell the world what you think on Facebook's social network. Use your status update, share images and pictures from the events as they come in, change your profile picture.
 |
| This comic by Heather Dowdee-Cushman has been taken down by Facebook. |
Coming up on the live-chat today with Emma Kwasnica at 5pm ET is Heather Dowdee-Cushman, the amazing comic artist who has so wonderfully captured the issue of society's response to breastfeeding in public for years. And yes, even Heather's comics have been remove from Facebook. Here's one of them. What do you think? Join the live chat and tell us!
Update: Wednesday, Feb 1, noon MT
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Roll-call of Facebook shame!
Every day I get reports of breastfeeding images removed and accounts suspended or disabled.
Today I got some good news from Nicole Miller, who FINALLY got her account back up after it was suspended Jan 10th for a breastfeeding image. That's 21 days, folks.
Justine Smith of Ohio reported this morning:
"Yet another breastfeeding picture has been removed from my FB page!"This afternoon Michelle Hickman, the woman whose harassment and humiliation at her local Houston Target turned into nurse-ins across the nation, will be Emma Kwasnica's guest on the live-chat. Come join us, 2pmPT, 4pmCT, 5pmET. Did you go to a Target nurse-in? Are you coming out to one of the Facebook nurse-ins Feb 6?
There are protests scheduled around the world:
1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA
Hanover Quay, Dublin
8 Carnaby Street, W1 London, United Kingdom
340 Madison Ave, New York, New York, 10057
28 Rue Hamelin , Paris, France
Address to be confirmed.
(Feb 7th)
(Feb 7th)
Update: Wednesday, Feb 1, 8 a.m. MT
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Today Facebook is widely expected to announce its IPO. What will happen if the "influential mom demographic" starts telling the world - and advertisers - what they don't like about Facebook?
Wall Street has been buzzing about Facebook's pending announcement that it plans to offer shares to the public.
Wall Street has been buzzing about Facebook's pending announcement that it plans to offer shares to the public.
The company is expected to be valued at between $75 and $100 billion dollars. Experts estimate Facebook ad revenues at 3.1 billion in 2011.
The Wall Street Journal says:
The Wall Street Journal says:
"An IPO will also test the ability of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, age 27, to manage a global company whose financial performance will be scrutinized every three months by investors."Breastfeeding mothers represent a significant slice of "the influential mom demographic." According to Entrepreneur, there are 75 million moms - who influence 85 per cent of our household purchases - in the US alone. That is $2.1 trillion per year in spending decisions MADE BY MOMS.
Facebook is offering up moms to advertisers. They convince advertisers their dollars are well-spent on Facebook because they can access us precisely through Facebook's targeting system. This is what company COO Sheryl Sandberg said about Facebook and its appeal to advertisers:
"Marketers have always wanted you know personal relationships with consumers or relationships where consumers do two things, consumers buy their products and consumers tell their friends that they buy their products. Marketers have always been looking for that person who’s not just going to buy but spread the word to their friends. What we do on Facebook is we now enable marketers to find that and then if I do it on Facebook I’m sharing with an average of 130 people. And so it becomes a word of mouth marketing at scale, so people can tell each other what they like which is for marketers the thing they’ve been looking for I think for a long time."Before they spend precious advertising dollars on Facebook, businesses will want to be reassured that Facebook actually has control of its network and is going to do what it says it is going to do.
Our experience shows Facebook doesn't have control of its network.
Facebook encourages new moms to put photos up of their brand new babies breastfeeding. There are 4 million babies born every year in the US and the vast majority of those moms put those babies to their breast after birth. Facebook wants women and families to share those joyous moments. That's what Facebook does - that's the core of Facebook - "we want everyone to be social," says Sheryl Sandberg. "our mission is to help people to connect and stay connected... we are focused on doing one thing incredibly well...one thing....connect the world."
But then Facebook allows rogue employees to intimidate those millions of moms who might want to share their breastfeeding experience through photos. And it says it can't stop this from happening? What do the advertisers think of that?
Sandberg told Charlie Rose back in November the key to Facebook is allowing people to be their real selves online...
Facebook wants moms to be our real selves online. They say they want us to share when we are nurturing our real children with our real breasts. They apologize when our breastfeeding images get taken down in error by their employees, over, and over, and over again.
So what is Facebook doing when it allows its employees to side with the seamy underside of society, the bullies, the harassers? How much is that demographic worth?
It's time to get Facebook to take us seriously. If they won't fix this problem, we can target their advertisers with the message that we won't support advertisers who sell to us through Facebook. Sandberg says Facebook gives advertisers access to the power of word of mouth - a mom talks about what she likes and reaches on average 130 people.
What happens when influential moms like you and me don't like something? How many people on average hear about what we don't like? Right now we've got Facebook in our spotlight. Next Monday, February 6th, there will be protests all around the globe at Facebook offices. I'll be at the nurse-in at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park. On that day there will be many, many more people participating in a virtual protest to tell Facebook to leave breastfeeding images alone.
What happens if they don't, or can't fix the problem?
If they won't fix it, then we start telling advertisers we won't support firms that buy ads on a social network that harasses, intimidates, and bullies breastfeeding moms.
more
Facebook encourages new moms to put photos up of their brand new babies breastfeeding. There are 4 million babies born every year in the US and the vast majority of those moms put those babies to their breast after birth. Facebook wants women and families to share those joyous moments. That's what Facebook does - that's the core of Facebook - "we want everyone to be social," says Sheryl Sandberg. "our mission is to help people to connect and stay connected... we are focused on doing one thing incredibly well...one thing....connect the world."
But then Facebook allows rogue employees to intimidate those millions of moms who might want to share their breastfeeding experience through photos. And it says it can't stop this from happening? What do the advertisers think of that?
Sandberg told Charlie Rose back in November the key to Facebook is allowing people to be their real selves online...
"The social web can’t exist until you are your real self online. I have to be me. You have to be Charlie Rose. He has to be Mark Zuckerberg. I have to be Sheryl Sandberg. Once we are online as ourselves, connected to each other and our other friends, then you can have the evolution of what becomes the social web..."Sandberg was asked by Rose to compare Facebook's corporate culture to Google. She says Google is all about algorithms and machine burning, and Facebook is all about people:
"We start from a totally different place. We start from an individual. Who are you? You know, what do you want to do? What do you want to share?" Zuckerberg: "It is fundamentally about giving people the tools that they need to share the things that they want with the people that they want, make the connections that they want."
Facebook wants moms to be our real selves online. They say they want us to share when we are nurturing our real children with our real breasts. They apologize when our breastfeeding images get taken down in error by their employees, over, and over, and over again.
So what is Facebook doing when it allows its employees to side with the seamy underside of society, the bullies, the harassers? How much is that demographic worth?
It's time to get Facebook to take us seriously. If they won't fix this problem, we can target their advertisers with the message that we won't support advertisers who sell to us through Facebook. Sandberg says Facebook gives advertisers access to the power of word of mouth - a mom talks about what she likes and reaches on average 130 people.
What happens when influential moms like you and me don't like something? How many people on average hear about what we don't like? Right now we've got Facebook in our spotlight. Next Monday, February 6th, there will be protests all around the globe at Facebook offices. I'll be at the nurse-in at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park. On that day there will be many, many more people participating in a virtual protest to tell Facebook to leave breastfeeding images alone.
What happens if they don't, or can't fix the problem?
If they won't fix it, then we start telling advertisers we won't support firms that buy ads on a social network that harasses, intimidates, and bullies breastfeeding moms.
more
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