Black Label Magazine’s editor in chief has been placed on a 30 day ban by Facebook for sharing W Magazine’s image of Chrissy Teigen, the original post not removed and Facebook said did not “violate their community standards.” Can we say discrimination?
Back in July, I sent an email to my subscribers announcing Veruca Dulce’s gallery and sent with it this picture.
In my email client, I can select “auto-post” to Facebook and it goes on the Black Label Magazine Facebook page. The post was there for a few days, and then someone reported it for displaying nudity. Sure, it’s a butt shot, but Facebooks “Community Standards” concerning butt shots are vague at best, and definitely not equally enforced. There have been other butt shots of mine that have been reported and not removed, and I know of other photographers and models that have posted them, and it’s been a crapshoot as to if it gets removed or not.
So the above shot gets reported, and Facebook determines it violates their ToS (terms of service). Both the Black Label page and my personal account get a 3-day ban. I’m like “that sucks, dude,” but move on with my life and enjoy 3-days of Facebook freedom.
Next, earlier this month, I post this image to a secret networking group for nude models and photographers—the place where I met Jorg Otto, Kati Babylol, Kiki van Hees, and Anthony Neste, invaluable contributors to Black Label Magazine.
Someone infiltrated the group and reported this and a swath of other images. Many of us, myself included, had bans imposed on us. Mine was 7 days.
There’s no arguing that we were posting nudes. Our only defense was that it was in a secret group that you could only find if you were specifically invited. So, okay, we ate it. 7 day Facebook vacation. (Side note: My friend Spyro Zarifopoulos has started a petition to allow secret groups to share nudity. Sign it if you believe in it!! Here’s the link: https://www.change.org/p/spyro-zarifopoulos-pedro-rodriguez-gonzalez-have-facebook-allow-artistic-nudity-for-photographers-and-models-within-secret-groups)
Let’s stop for a moment and consider that media producers, models included, rely very heavily on Facebook for gathering and communicating with fans. It’s the way of the world now; Facebook has literally dominated the internet for networking and marketing. In the over-saturated world of the internet, even with all of its new algorithms that keep us little people from getting real exposure, Facebook is key to getting your content discovered.
But now, it seems, Facebook has sided with what I call “corporate oligarchy.” Now that Facebook has wrested the power to dominate the internet, it gets to pick and choose who and what it allows to gain exposure.
Now I will illustrate this as I continue the story.
On 26 August, W Magazine posted this photo to their Facebook page.
Clearly, an exposed breast…
Naturally, I don’t have any problem with the image, nor do I have a problem with W Magazine. What I have a problem with are double standards. 400 some people “reacted” to the post. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that at least one person reported it for nudity. In fact, I became aware of seven other photographers who reported it, simply out of protest. If we don’t get to do it, neither does W Magazine. I joined that battle cry, having been banned for posting nudity. I reported it on Saturday, August 27th. A few hours later, I get a message in my Support Inbox: “We reviewed your report…”
Here’s the screen cap:
There is one word to describe this: DISCRIMINATION
Facebook is clearly engaged in discriminatory enforcement of its “community standards.” For whatever reason, Facebook has decided that Black Label Magazine and I should be shut out and shunned from its network in whatever way possible. Nevermind that my page is not viewable to anyone under 18. Nevermind that there are swaths of people out there that wish to consume the content I create—content at least of the same caliber of that shared and created by the likes of W Magazine—content that there is a huge demand for. None of those facts matter to Facebook. What matters to Facebook is that it exercises its power to sustain or destroy what it deems deserves to be sustained or destroyed.
And I get it, Facebook is a private company—they can implement whatever policy they see fit, and if we choose to use Facebook, we have to play by their policies. But private company or not, Facebook does not have the right to discriminate against someone because they aren’t a large company. It is completely unethical and probably illegal. If I report a violation to Facebook and they tell me it isn’t a violation, that tells me that I have the right to share it. Why do I not have the right to share it but W Magazine does?
The point is: I DO have the right to share a post that Facebook says doesn’t violate its community standards. Furthermore, if I don’t get to post nudity, neither does anyone else, regardless of their size or stock value–otherwise you do not have a “standard.” By Facebook deleting my share of that post and locking out my account for 30 days—which costs me and my company money and fans—it is a clear cut case of discrimination.
By the way, W Magazine’s post of the nude Chrissy Teigen is still live on Facebook. You can view it here: https://www.facebook.com/wmagazine/posts/10157235816425004 (UPDATE: the post was taken down 31 days after this article was published and went viral).
Congratulations, Facebook, you have become an agent of corporate oligarchy.
