Breastfeeding photos on Facebook deemed ‘unsuitable for children’

MELBOURNE - Photographs of breastfeeding women clicked by an Australian photographer have been banned from the Facebook deeming them unsuitable for children.

Melbourne-based art dealer and photographer Christopher Rimmer travelled to Africa to shoot pictures for an upcoming exhibition documenting the continent’s western aspirations, their affect on Africa’s natural environment and tribal culture.

He posted a sample of his work featuring bare-breasted Himba women on Facebook, which deemed them unsuitable for children and took them off overnight.

“I find it absolutely absurd that anybody would consider those pictures offensive in any way,” The Age quoted Rimmer as saying.

“To suggest they are pornographic or gratuitous is quite unbelievable. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would suggest it,” he added.

He posted the images last week while still overseas but woke this morning to an email from Facebook informing him of their removal because they violated the site’s terms of use policy.

“I suspect we are moving into unfamiliar territory when an organisation the size of Facebook acts as an arbiter of what constitutes art and what constitutes pornography, especially considering some of the material and language they do allow,” Rimmer added.

The company does not allow “content that is hateful, threatening or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence,” Facebook said in a statement. (ANI)