A dispute is erupting between breast feeding activists (known as “lactivists”) and Facebook over pictures of breast feeding on Facebook.
Facebook has taken down pictures of users breast feeding, and has even gone as far as banning users completely on the basis that the pictures constitute “obscene content.” Suffice to say the lactivists aren’t the least bit happy.
According to a SMH report, lactivists complained that their images were removed despite the fact they contained no nipple, questioning the logic of the Facebook obscenity accusations: “Where does the feeding stop and the boob begin?? A peek of nipple?” Where indeed.
Facebook spokeswoman Meredith Chin said Facebook does not prevent lactivists from uploading photos of themselves breastfeeding, but went on to say “Photos containing an exposed breast do violate our Terms and are removed”. Now I might be male so I have no recent first hand experience but I’m confused as to how breast feeding cannot include breasts?
The lactivists are calling for supporters to join their Facebook group Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!, which currently has over 7000 members.
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you MIGHT be male?
Breastfeeding always been weapon of feminists. They want to ascertain that breasts are and should be used only for breastfeeding.
You know nothing about feminists. Breasts are a source of sexual pleasure for women. Feminists believe that sex should be pleasurable for women instead of only pleasurable for men (while they ignore the needs of women during sex). Thus, feminists DO NOT think that breasts are only for breast feeding and recognize their role in sex.
Damn, breastbook.com is taken…
ben, trust me I am
the phrase is a reflection on the fact that I’m not female and hence not really an expert on breast feeding.
lol - easy, you can show breastfeeding shots - but don’t show the full cusp…just the baby’s mouth around the nipple.
you don’t exactly need the entire breast flopping over the baby’s face to breast feed
American prudishness conquers all, apparently. Services should have a statement of culture just like their statements of privacy based upon which people can sign up knowing what to expect.
Europe points and laughs at the Yanks and their facebook!
Soooo… techcrunch being renamed facebookcrunch.com sometime soon? Seems to be a lot of facebook news which I see elsewhere, while there does not seem to be much …
From your about page:
“TechCrunch, founded on June 11, 2005, is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.”
Not sure if I should focus on the word “new” or “obsessively”.
A little less facebook would be nice… but I guess you need to keep the links and bait working
Dave
By the way… the last comment was a ‘joke’ before anyone gets all annoyed
Thankies!
Dave
http://www.freebet1.com
Some people find breast feed as baby’s bl*wjob.
Some women like breastfeeding and others don’t.
First you have
Rebublicans and democrates
Seperation church and state.
Animal rights
lobster rights
Abortion
treehugger
snake oil business man
Conflict of interest drives people screw ball.
lawrence (comment 3)
that was my initial thought as well but if you’re not showing the breast, just the baby, wouldn’t that make it a shot of just a baby, as opposed to a baby breast feeding?
I dont understand why breast feeding is such an issue ! Here in india, you can see lots of women feeding their kids in public, and noone minds that .. I just liked the analysis /legalase around such a childish thing:)
Not the post I expected this early in the morning.
But http://www.breastcrunch.com is available…….
lol - have you’ve been living in a cave?
use a breastfeeding bra that’ll safely open a hole around the areola exposing only the nipple, for the baby to suck on
that’ll please the conservatives at facebook, as exposed to breastfeeding the traditional way where you flop open a bare breast with all that cleavage exposed
This is the result of having a 22 year old running a company. Yes, he may be brilliant or just lucky. But he is 22 years old.
His words used were probably something like “hey guys, that is gross stuff. What is that lady doing to that kid. Get that off the site I don’t want anyone saying we are encouraging porn”.
Duncan,
I’m mother of three, breastfed them all and never bought a single packet of dried whatever. The point is, it should never be suggested that breastfeeding has anything to do sex.
Debbie
Breastfeeding was invented Europe… Centuries ago, you have conflict and wars. For example, Irish once believe breastfeeding should be legalize. Great Britain say no. They start putting catholic churches over Protestants site.
They start burning breastfeeders and whores.
Breastfeed was pass on to family genes. They came to America and debating Breastfeeding should be legalize. Others complaint and filed lawsuit…
Breastfeeding: natural
Posting pics of your exposed dispenser: not natural
BTW … lactivists.net is available. Only .com and .org are taken
Depends on the breast whether I’d deem it obscene. They do have to draw the line, though. I mean, naturist’s claim its totally ‘natural’ to wander around naked but I doubt they’d allow those kind of pictures.
I’m not really sure why these womem want to post breast feeing pictures on Facebook, anyway?
Alex, lol
Debbie: I’m certainly not suggesting it is
At last! Conclusive evidence Mark Zuckerberg is a real boob…
Could you try and fit the word “lactivist” in your post a few more times? I’m actually a member of that group, and not because I consider myself a “lactivist”, I consider myself a rational human being.
And as for #12, Lawrence, why on earth should any woman have to buy a “breastfeeding bra” just to appease some moron who says things like “flop open a bare breast with all that cleavage exposed”.
There are genuinely offensive groups on Facebook that objectify women (see “The Boob Crew”) yet something as completely non-sexual as breastfeeding is banned.
I bet if somebody puts a picture up of a decapitated body with blood all over it, they have no problem with it. But OMG TITTIES.
The American prudeness is what’s obscene.
Uproar over nothing. There are so many other facebook groups that exist which show women in sexually suggestive postures. Noone seems to be complaining about them.
myself i have no problems that a woman wants to show her breasts, with or without baby. the main reason why women where bras to cover up is for support not to hide them. yes most guys like the look of breasts but many females like to see a guy with out his shirt. by covering up for the majority of females has just heightened the sexual nature of not covering up. we wouldnt have this discussion if was more common for females to wear no top if they desired.
regarding breastfeeding, every child should have right to a feed any, at any time, not determined if they in a public place or not.
a photo of a child feeding should be seen as a wonderful bonding between mother and child. its amazing moment that a mother can feed her child, and the emotion, love towards each other makes it a wonderful photo.
Is this the same facebook.com that has thousands of pictures of underage high school kids drinking when their parents are out of town on the same page as a 120×600 Target ad or Verizon ad?
Not sure why the lactivists (lol on the name) want the pics on facebook, but aren’t we are a time in our development as an industry where facebook might take that opportunity to display a symilac ad?
Dear me - I might be male and i am not sure how you can breast feed without showing the breast!!! (you have me holding my sides laughing)
In England we have guidelines that the nipple is the boob and the bits around it are flesh and not really classified as boob - at least that is for adverts and advertising anyway.
I am also a mother of two and I breastfed my babies. But had a terrible time in London. I was having dinner at the Harvester and my son started screaming - I don’t believe in dummies so I whipped out my boob and breastfed. The restaurant stood still. One man shouted - OMG thats disgusting you are putting me off my food.
Then we were asked to leave.
Can you believe it? This is London and this is Facebook (social networking supremo) and they feel they have to ban breastfeeding pictures. Its pathetic - breast is best ands its the most natural for you child and … I could go on.
… but’ll save all of you my ranting.
@Mike Abundo (comment #2), you’re a true web entrepreneur!!!
Let’s start breastfeed20.com lol!
Here in Côte d’Ivoire, Breastfeeding is the most natural thing and has nothing sexual in it. People don’t even pay attention to it and you won’t have people telling their kids “Don’t Look at it, Brandon!”.
I would sign up for Facebook just to join this group, but… I don’t want to support Facebook at all.
Breastfeeding is one of the most natural things humans do, and, society is f***ed up.
THE END.
Well, it appears Facebook has some opinions about which groups you should and shouldn’t join.
On the basis that I joined ‘Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!’, my account was suspended. I didn’t post photos of my breasts (I’m a man), made no comments, simply joined the group.
And my account was suspended. Facebook will simply hang itself if it continues with this kind of behaviour and good riddance.
Last I checked, people “willingly joined” Facebook and they have to play by their rules. If they wanted to exclude people who like Country music and remove photos of Garth Brooks, they could.
If you have a problem with the service DON’T JOIN. I’m sure there is a “BreastfeedingBook.com” out there, that would be perfect for these mothers.
New social networks pop-up every ten minutes, go find one that YOU like and fits with your lifestyle.
This nonsense of complaining every time someone is excluded, or limited in their actions, is absurd. People looking for reasons to complain and protest, to draw attention to their organization, is just lame.
Requisite Seinfeld quote:
Elaine: Jerry, at what point would you say sex has taken place?
Jerry: I’d say when the nipple makes it’s first appearance.
Let me get this straight: FaceCrook steals the idea and source code behind the whole site and they are worried about lactating breasts? They have their priorities in line and that is the type of company I want to be associated with. Yaaaayyyy FACECROOK.
I am really surprised this article even stayed close to on topic.
Facebook does something wrong, so let’s all continue to use Facebook. That’ll show ‘em!
Hypocrites.
The real question is “Why would someone upload a picture of herself breast feeding **TO FACEBOOK** ??” It is a pretty intimate thing after all, and the only reason i see to do it in public is, well, a hungry baby crying. Even if you want to share this experience with the whole world, put it on your flickr or your personal website or whatever.
Stuff like that is either posted to Facebook because you want some attention, a controversy and blog posts just like this one. Or you think breast feeding defines your truly unique personality and you want the whole world to know. Facebook should delete the posts in either case.
Until “other” people quit being creeped out by breastfeeding and begin to see it as the normal thing to do, there are women who won’t do it for fear of being in a position in which they must choose to feed baby or offend someone. I encourage breastfeeding mothers to post their pictures, nipple and all, so that people can experience the image and become accustommed to it. Breast is best!
I guess women should cover themselves in veils as well, just in case too much flesh is exposed. That would be a step forward right?
In the Canadian province of Ontario women have the legal right to walk around topless if they choose. And we all know this is not even an issue in Europe.
If Facebook is supposed to be your social network of Family and Friends, you should be allowed to share the important moments in your life on there (as long as it falls within the laws of the location the servers are hosted in of course…)
Yeah… also go posting pictures of yourself taking a pee or a poop… That’s another intimate stuff you should share with your friends and family.
Women uploading those kind of pics are whores. Period. Long life to Facebook!-
Your link to facebook doesn’t go anywhere…
“They do have to draw the line, though.”
No, actually, Facebook does not have to draw the line. It is a big mistake for Facebook to do this, because now people will be “testing” the system to its limits.
What Facebook should do is CROWDSOURCE. Let the users draw the line. That is web2.0 is all about, right? If Facebook starts to preach to people who they have to be, they’ll go down in the long run, no matter how strong they might be now.
CROWDSOURCE THIS THING. Just put a button: “Do you find this image offensive?”, then let people vote and let people take down the offensive ones. Show the votes as they occur. Make it transparent.
I think I heard it somewhere: “don’t fight the internet”?
http://www.capyblanca.com
I agree with this method-
Does Techcrunch have a theme to stick to anymore to which it is trying or is it becoming a place for facebook activities and discussion board of facebook contentions !!
People are somply overreacting to what ios just a digital image. It6 isn’tr as though Facebook is running a paedophile ring..
I think that people are overreacting to what is simply a digital image. It isn’t as though Facebook is running a paedophile ring.
My My, let’s assume many college girls post pics of a wild weekend party. Tits hanging everywhere. Zuck likes THAT. But the breastfeeding is PORN? Zuck knows most of the males who join facebook, no matter what age, are there trying to hook up for a cheap lay.
As for the continued stories about Facebook, everyone is complaining. Ya think anyone at TC listens? Hell no. This is all about trying to garner an offer for TC.
I’ll take some!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Think about it: Who the hell wants to see your kid sucking on your nipple?
I certainly do not want to!
I hate those kind of pictures. Just like I dont want to see you cleaning your baby’s butt, or his little penis….
Some women are fucking retarded.
This is so ridiculous. Americans have to lighten up - what’s wrong with a breast and why is that pornographic?
LiveJournal dealt with almost the exact same issue more than a year ago http://snipurl.com/1qfgj
If this is the case, a friend of mine who posted a very explicit picture of his rather excited genitalia should DEFINITELY be banned…it ended up on my news feed TWICE.
I have nothing against breast feeding groups, although perhaps pictures on them should be accessible only to approved members of the group. Can this be done? I have no idea.
It’s nutty that people are posting breastfeeding pictures. Those women must be suffering from the long-term effects of sleep deprivation from their screaming kids.
Portraying yourself as a milk machine is hardly flattering. You have a brain as well as boobs. Use them both.
lactivists ….. HA!
This is an April fools joke…right? Oh shit its September!
The same thing happened with Livejournal (but through userpics). I don’t understand why anyone would want to show the whole internet their breastfeeding abilities in the first place. Sure, breast feed in public all you want but does it really matter if you can’t post a picture of yourself doing it?
Come on, who the hell wants to see it anyway?
its not the pnt of why would they want its the pnt of that they cant that makes them mad. if you wanna post a pic of your dick who is anyone to ask you why you just want to, the problem comes when you know you cant