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Too Fat For Facebook: Photo Banned For Depicting Body In 'Undesirable Manner' (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on from the small-misunderstanding dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report on The Guardian: Facebook has apologized for banning a photo of a plus-sized model and telling the feminist group that posted the image that it depicts "body parts in an undesirable manner". Cherchez la Femme, an Australian group that hosts popular culture talkshows with "an unapologetically feminist angle", said Facebook rejected an advert featuring Tess Holliday, a plus-sized model wearing a bikini, telling the group it violated the company's "ad guidelines". After the group appealed against the rejection, Facebook's ad team initially defended the decision, writing that the photo failed to comply with the social networking site's "health and fitness policy". "Ads may not depict a state of health or body weight as being perfect or extremely undesirable," Facebook wrote. "Ads like these are not allowed since they make viewers feel bad about themselves. Instead, we recommend using an image of a relevant activity, such as running or riding a bike." In a statement on Monday, Facebook apologized for its original stance and said it had determined that the photo does comply with its guidelines.Facebook said that its team scans millions of ad images every week, and sometimes understandably misses out on a few.

1 of 485 comments (clear)

  1. I doubt it was innocent mistake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I doubt it was a simple mistake. More likely someone from the crowd of "OMG HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOURSELF LIKE THAT WHEN YOU ARE THAT WEIGHT" was the one who made the decision to block it. For some reason there's a huge number of people who absolutely hate on people who are fat.
    Not everyone has the ability to simply "work out and eat less" to lose weight. Sometimes there's medical or genetic reasons why it's difficult to go down in weight.
    People should be able to feel good about themselves, not live in mental torture and anguish from the crazy people who spew hatred about some specific physical aspect of their body.
    And if it's an actual unhealthy lifestyle decision as it sometimes is, then they are the ones who will live with the consequences of it, just like any other lifestyle decision that can negatively affect health. It's not YOUR job to point it out, believe me it's been pointed out a million times to each and everyone of them.

    Want to see what I'm talking about? Check out her public facebook account:
    https://www.facebook.com/TessHollidayOfficial/
    Or twitter:
    https://twitter.com/tess_holliday?lang=en
    Tons of comments spewing the nastiest vile things.