Life ban... art group is forced off Facebook over nude masterpiece
Image violated the social media giant’s nudity laws
‘Ejected from my account in minutes’
FROM Michelangelo to Picasso, the nude has been a feature in the work of some of the world’s greatest artists.
But when it comes to the world of Facebook, it appears the naked form is a little too risqué – after it banned a Scots life drawing class from its site.
Glasgow based art club All The Young Nudes said it fell foul of the tech giant’s nudity law last week after it posted an image of 1948 painting Lola De Valence, by the Belgian Surrealist artist Rene Magritte, to advertise its next event.
The image shows a nude woman in front of a wallpaper background of naked female torsos.
Founder of the club Joanna Süsskind said the class has now been left without a place to advertise and has pleaded with Facebook to reverse its decision to axe its profile.
The 32-year-old said she was first made aware of the problem after posting an image of the famous painting online.
She said: ‘Within minutes, I’d been ejected from my own Facebook account, which has around 1,000 connections, and told I’d violated Facebook’s terms.
‘This means I won’t be able to post again for 30 days. It also means I can’t use the Facebook direct message service, which is my main method of contacting life models and venue hosts.’
Miss Süsskind said the club’s profile on the Facebook-owned photosharing site Instagram, which does not allow nipples to be shown in photos, has also been deleted. She added: ‘This is really harmful to a small business like mine, which uses paid-for sponsored posts, to promote events.
‘There have been issues before but I am always careful to stick to the rules. It’s unclear whether or not Facebook have tightened up these rules, but I’ve heard other life drawing groups are experiencing similar issues.’
The art club, which Miss Süsskind started up in a Glasgow pub in 2009, currently runs one-off events at venues such as Kelvingrove and SWG3 in Glasgow, as well as weekly drop-in life drawing sessions for around 200 people at venues in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. Sketchers pay £6 per session, which allows them access to drawing materials and life models, who pose in the nude.
According to Facebook’s Community Standards policy on nudity, the social media giant allows ‘photographs of paintings, sculptures and other art that depicts nude figures’.
But it also states: ‘We remove photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks. We also restrict some images of female breasts if they include the nipple.’
It is also thought a life drawing class in Edinburgh has had the same issues with its Facebook business pages and Instagram accounts.
Miss Süsskind added: ‘We’re all trying to make art and drawing more accessible for more people, but we’re all fighting the same strange battle.’
The decision to ban the life drawing class comes despite Facebook being criticised by Prime Minister Theresa May for not doing enough to stamp out extremist content online.
The comments were made in June this year following the London Bridge terror attacks in which seven people died.