If you are a breastfeeding mom and you want to share your experience with your Facebook friends or seek out advice, you will be glad to hear that Facebook breastfeeding photos are now allowed. In an official post, the company clearly states that these photos are “beautiful” and in full compliance with their policies:
Does Facebook allow photos of mothers breastfeeding? Yes. We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful and we’re glad to know that it’s important for mothers to share their experiences with others on Facebook. The vast majority of these photos are compliant with our policies. Please note that the photos we review are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other Facebook members who complain about them being shared on Facebook.
This is a new one from Facebook, as many reporters have noticed. Until now, Facebook breastfeeding photos were completely removed, banned and labeled as “nudity” and “pornography” by Facebook moderators. Many concerned pages and groups expressed their dismay towards this Facebook policy, as it seems that all content and photos have been taken down without anybody taking into account their context and the explicit features.
However, the change was so subtle, nobody knew about it until recently, although the Facebook breastfeeding photos seem to be allowed for two weeks now. It seems that you have to stumble across the problem in order to realize it is no longer a problem, but it’s a good thing we found out about it, even if a bit late.
How did the world find out about the new policy changes? It all took a breastfeeding mom and blogger:
The change was first picked up by The Independent, which tracked down a parenting blogger with thousands of followers who tested Facebook’s new policy. The blogger posted a photo of her breastfeeding her infant daughter. Facebook actually took down the blogger’s page, but later reinstated it, and apologized for the transgression.
The news were also confirmed by other media outlets and by Facebook representatives. However, there is a catch to this, be warned! The Facebook announcement clearly states that future breastfeeding photos might still be reported by very prude Facebook users who just don’t like women breastfeeding in publicly shared pictures. However, all agree that now Facebook moderators might look with a different eye at these photos and might not simply remove them without further or deeper analysis.
Facebook’s policies involving nudity, sexuality, obscenity and other bad things look like taking a new shape towards a more relaxed and non – judgmental attitude towards breastfeeding moms displaying their behaviors in social media.