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Facebook Bans Animated Breast Cancer Awareness Video Showing Circle-Shaped Breasts (theguardian.com)
Last month, Facebook deleted a historic Vietnam war photo of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack, claiming it violated Facebook's restrictions on nudity. Now it appears that the company has removed a video on breast cancer awareness posted in Sweden after deeming the images offensive, the Swedish Cancer Society said on Thursday. The Guardian reports: The video, displaying animated figures of women with circle-shaped breasts, was aimed at explaining to women how to check for suspicious lumps. Sweden's Cancerfonden said it had tried in vain to contact Facebook, and had decided to appeal against the decision to remove the video. "We find it incomprehensible and strange how one can perceive medical information as offensive," Cancerfoden communications director Lena Biornstad told Agence France-Presse. "This is information that saves lives, which is important for us," she said. "This prevents us from doing so." The Guardian went on to report in a separate article that the the Swedish Cancer Society decided to make the round breasts square to evade Facebook's censorship of female anatomy. The group issued an open letter to Facebook featuring the pair of pair of breasts constructed of pink squares as opposed to pink circles. Facebook did apologize for banning the video, saying in a statement to the Guardian: "We're very sorry, our team processes millions of advertising images each week, and in some instances we incorrectly prohibit ads. This image does not violate our ad policies. We apologize for the error and have let the advertiser know we are approving their ads."
...breasts ARE square. So what is the problem here?
A new level of kinky :)
When you replace Internet with a walled farcical version of it.
Meanwhile, I've reported two videos on Facebook showing actual homicide. Each time they said it did not violate Community Standards.
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins
I thought it was just Japanese censorship that made them look square and pixelated. I didn't know they really were.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Facebook probably has thousands of photos posted per minute... and the review has to be mostly automated (and was at the end of the day written by humans). Even if a human is involved, they probably only have a few seconds to make a decision on the photo.
It's not unreasonable to expect that occasional mistakes will be made and corrected.
It seems like /. expects that the world is flawless. It's mostly made up of messy humans (even, who are occasionally tired, distracted, or overworked.)
Mistakes are made. Mistakes can mostly be corrected.
A cancer society above all would understand that T2 errors happen...
Create your own website and post your videos there. We still have people who are stuck with the AOL mentality like Facebook is the only place on the internet..
did you forget to take your meds?
The group issued an open letter to Facebook featuring the pair of pair of breasts...
Four of them? Those Swedes seem to be into some weird stuff...
/thread
Seriously. It's the Nth time we learn about that and the result is always the same.
There are ways to publish such videos without such insane restrictions. Even youtube nowadays seems a better platform. Also we have vimeo and torrents.
All humans are to be depicted as Meseeks.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I suspect also that Facebook (being a US firm) is trying to impose American prudishness on nations with completely different cultures. Not out of malice, merely ignorance of what other places may or may not find offensive.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
But isn't it funny that every time a mistake is made it is nudity that is the target? While the hate speech and violence is left alone?
And for 'funny' read: "Piss off with your American prudishness".
"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
Facebook Bans Animated Breast Cancer Awareness Video Showing Circle-Shaped Breasts
This is a good thing, being that Facebook is a US company.
The breasts should be a VERY oblong oval shape like this
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Accuracy, people. Accuracy.
Facebook is cancer - or course its going to help cancer win the fight
Well that's the whole problem. Not just American prudishness. Add in "can't insult the king" (Thailand - and yes, I know he recently died), can't show female faces (some of the stricter Islamic groups), can't show x, y, or z - you get to a world where not only can you not show most images but even the text has to be highly censored. Can't offend anyone culture goes too far in cases like this.
And how exactly do mistakes get corrected, if we don't point out said mistakes?
Facebook's "apology" is nothing but a cynical attempt to stem public anger...the kind of anger that might cause governments to act against it.
Until an aggrieved party can access an appeal process in a reasonable time and get ridiculous situations like this taken care of promptly, Facebook remains an irresponsible gate-keeper, and its apology remains a fraud.
We'll leave for another day the fact that Facebook is inflicting its prissy, Puritanical standards on the rest of the world. And no, the argument that "you can always stop using it" doesn't apply. It has occupied its niche in the internet's ecology completely, leaving no reasonable alternative. Practically speaking, it is a monopoly.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
So i am guessing cookie monsters eyes would trigger the same filter then
They replaced female boobs with man boobs. I was impressed.
Ban people who submit "offensive content" complaints. Eventually, you will have a population of users who are never offended.
It's so absurd that anything sexual is considered "harmful" somehow. It defies all logic, yet here we are, still overreacting about such things.
I wonder if we'll ever reach a point where it doesn't matter, naked bodies are no longer shameful and we can discuss these things without blushing.
It's frustrating that it's taking this long to purge outdated "values" from our culture.
... get a parallelogram every few years.
Americans like enemies. It gives them something to beat their chests about. That's American culture in a nutshell. What you are witnessing here is the creation of a make-believe enemy (nudity) for the mere purpose of having a target for chest-beating. It's not the nudity OR the chest-beating that creates the problem -- it's mere arrogance.
To be fair, not all Americans are like this. But clearly, the ones who are have taken it upon themsleves to speak for the rest.
Repression of lust, enjoyment sexual expression is present in any human society on this planet. To control one of the most important drives in a species - procreation - is paramount to control, repress and pervert people in various societies (and religions) from early childhood on.
Just look - everyone has it, any creature on this planet does it, it's part of life and it is "forbidden", controlled - no, your body does not belong to you, what you do and how you do it in your bedrooms - no, can't do this or that, it's against (fill in whatever believe conditioning is there),
This Facebook acting is another example of this ongoing mental castration!
That's saying that the culture is outdated. Perhaps, but it has gotten us to where we are now. So look back on all the great failures and accomplishments and they were a result of those outdated values.
If you dare get off your high horse, Facebook, Google, and other US based companies have already been changing how they operate in other countries based on local laws(see: Right to be Forgotten, Germany's requirements on banning swastikas, Australia's requirements for things that are too violent, etc).
So it probably has less to do with "American prudishness" and more to do with an automated system curating content which is posted by people all over the globe, and flagged by people all over the globe.
So they put something on somebody else's website, the owner didn't like it and deleted it ?
Create your own website then. It is really not that hard.
> But isn't it funny that every time a mistake is made it is nudity that is the target?
No, that's just your own confirmation bias.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I'm pretty sure most nations find breast cancer and chemical warfare offensive. The problem is the policy, not the definition of the word. What Facebook wants to block is titillating images, not offensive ones. But then they really do come across as prudes if they call it what it is.
I think it's not so much about "trying to", but the people making the decisions are Americans living in the US. The decisions made therefore conform to mainstream American standards, without regard for where the poster is.
What is even more absurd is that circles used for educational purposes could be considered sexual.
> It's so absurd that anything sexual is considered "harmful" somehow.... yet here we are, still overreacting about such things.
Yep moving to the US from Europe, I couldn't believe how puritanical and apparently stuck in the 1800's the US really is when it comes to sex (which is after all a natural thing), but completely fine with sensationalizing graphic hardcore gun violence (which isn't).
In the US, blowing someones guts out all over the camera is fine, but you better not inadvertently show their nipple at the same time.
The article misses a key word for both takedowns: briefly. It portrays Facebook as being unreachable by the posters, and yet tucked away at the end of the article, Facebook has reversed the decision and apologised *before* the takedown made press.
In that light, the article and your presumption of intent really don't hold up to scrutiny.
-- A change is as good as a reboot.
Please show just one link to a high profile story of Facebook banning something it shouldn't on grounds other than nudity.
Meanwhile there is this story, there's the Vietnam story, there's the Little Mermaid Statue story ...
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Welcome to America. You can blow up a boob as long as you never show an intact nipple.
" our team processes millions of advertising images each week"
No, our SOFTWARE processes millions of advertising images. If a TEAM of (reasonable) PEOPLE had done it, the video would not have been banned.
>the company has removed a video after deeming the images were "the o-word"
FTFY.
I was sad when I saw the meaning of "literally" drowning in a flood of tard, but watching it happen to "offensive" is like watching someone fall down an escalator forever.
Soon the dictionary will just list Offensive: We have no idea.
No, read above poster one more time:
>...and the review has to be mostly automated...
>Mistakes are made. Mistakes can mostly be corrected.
Instant news these days just solidifies what is actually a transient moment. The shapes were flagged by computer, and a human will unflag it. This story (shining light on a half-baked moment) creates the exact sensationalism you just expressed.
That's probably correct, but they made it difficult to contact them, which removes any excuse that "it was an automated system that did it" provides.
Yes, if they made it easy to contact them they'd probably get LOTS of complaints. Guess what, They OUGHT to get lots of complaints.
Personally, I don't understand why people are willing to use Facebook, but since they are there are they are a public accomodation. It's not quite the same as a monopoly, though there are certain similarities, strongly reinforced by the network effect. As such for them to refuse service should be a crime. When this is going on internationally, though, things get quite complex, so they have an obligation to make contact, explanation, and negotiation easy when they refuse service. When they don't I start seeing valid reasons for countries to refuse to allow them to do business within "their borders".
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
It's clear that they EVENTUALLY got in contact with Facebook, but possibly only indirectly. It's not at all clear whether this happened before or after the story hit the news. Having called technical support at some companies and been put on hold for over an hour, I'm not willing to give Facebook the benefit of the doubt. I could be wrong, but I'll require at least *some* evidence before I'll believe it.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
The temporary censorship is a problem, but not the major problem, as that was corrected. The major problem is that it was difficult to reach someone who both could and would address the problem. I've been in that situation so often that I find THAT problem hard to forgive.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Facebook is a product of America, where exposed breasts in media are considered indecent, but graphic depictions of murder are just fine.
They might if they knew what T2 errors were. I know on the internet you have to pretend to know everything but I'm looking to buck that trend and admit I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. So maybe these guys don't either.
Sounds painful.
What's offensive is that you creepy invasive pricks are selling the data of the world's citizens to NoSecretsAllowed etc.
You creepy fucks.
Also, how long until non-Facebook users sue en-masse for being collaterally recorded by multiple Facebook-creepiess-enablers as they wander around with the app installed, in earshot of us all?
Requiem for the American Dream
what did you expect? It's an american company, so they are prudes and bashful. :)
That's how it is, if you have a problem with that, then don't use Facebook.
Facebook is only a thing to kill time. At least that is what I have seen.