Photo Credit: Derek Valasquez / CC by 2.0
After public outrage over an aggressive ban surrounding the Houses of the Holy album artwork, Facebook has reversed their decision.
The company even promised to restore the previously deleted posts.
A spokesperson for Facebook addressed the issue after it gained widespread attention on social media and the press. Ultimate Classic Rock first reported on the issue, stating that multiple people received 3-day bans for sharing the image.
Facebook takes a stern stance against nudity on the site, with exceptions for pieces of art.
“As our community standards explain, we don’t allow nude images of children on Facebook. But we know this a culturally significant image. Therefore, we’re restoring the posts we removed.”
Facebook says it will adjust its review algorithms to permit the album image to be used by everyone. Similar content with a cultural connection will be allowed on a case-by-case basis, even if it violates standards.
Hipgnosis’ Aubrey Powell took the photograph used for the Houses of the Holy album. It features a collage of nude images from a ’70s photo shoot featuring Stefan and Samantha Gates, who were child models at the time.
Facebook is supposed to have a team of human moderators who catch things the algorithm can’t. But these humans are often overworked.
A recent report notes that Facebook moderators typically have five seconds to make a Yes or No decision. If a human flags an image as possibly having suspect material, Facebook’s algorithm aggressively removes copies of the image.
Even a petition to get Facebook to address the issue was getting removed because the thumbnail featured the offending artwork.
Facebook ‘says’ they’ve lifted the ban but just today I got locked out of my FB page for sharing an article about the ‘reversal’ that showed the album artwork.
Give it time. Many members on my Zeppelin page, are just having their bans removed today, after a banning yesterday. It took me all day, to get my 3 day ban dropped.
Ashley, UCR was not the first one to report on this. I did an interview with Classic Rock, which shared their article on June 19, 2019. UCR did not report on this until late June 20. If it wasn’t for Classic Rock covering my ban from back in April, none of this would have happened. The hard work of my Zep page, and over 300,000 members worked hard to make this happen. UCR was NOT the only one to help this. Besides, the statements from Facebook, were from emails that I too received the evening of June 20th. Please cross check your facts next time.
So I suppose “Sticky Fingers” is outta the question…