Mass protest over Facebook policy on breastfeeding photos gains media attention

There has been a petition on the Facebook social networking site for over a year protesting about the removal of breastfeeding photos. I posted some of the images from our breastfeeding calendar in solidarity.

The argument continues and a virtual protest was held on the site this week and outside the company's headquarters. See:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=39521488436

This has been picked up by The Guardian today. See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/dec/30/facebook-breastfeeding-ban

Also see Morgan Gallagher's blog and campaign collecting photos at:
http://one-of-those-women.blogspot.com/2008/12/if-facebook-deleted-your-photo.html

The Guardian reports that Facebook has a clear policy on when a breastfeeding photo becomes obscene, quoting Facebook's Barry Schnitt as follows: "Photos containing a fully exposed breast, as defined by showing the nipple or areola, do violate those terms (on obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit material) and may be removed."

However, from Morgan's blog you can see that even 'nipple-free' photos have been deleted.

I've done a nipple hunt on our calendar and it passes the Barry test. You can order it here:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/calendarlatest.html

Our popular poster is borderline on the Barry test, however. You can order that one here:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/posters.html

This one from an earlier calendar would be hit by the ban as Barry would no doubt shout "nipple!"

PLEASE DON'T COPY THIS PICTURE WITHOUT OBTAINING COPYRIGHT APPROVAL FIRST (contact mikebrady@babymilkaction.org):

You can sign the Facebook petition calling for it to revise its policy at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2517126532