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Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

bbc.com

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Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#21

Post by jacquesm »

Swizec wrote: post #17
typetypetype wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I for one welcome our new robotic overlords and agree that it isnuncomfortable to be reminded that my favorite sexual objects are in fact meant for other purposes as well. So you would be "uncomfortable" having a female coworker that was using a breast pump? No wonder this industry has such a gender problem!

If she was doing it in an open office for everyone to see? Probably, yeah. I wouldn't say anything, obviously, but I definitely wouldn't be as comfortable with it as I would, say, a sneeze. I'm sure my female coworkers wouldn't mind vigorous nutsack scratching out in the open for all to see would they? It also is a perfectly natural activity and often necessary. But hey, I also get annoyed at people who chew loudly.…

Swizec, you're disappointing me with these comments. It's maybe related to how your culture views these things but women breastfeeding in public is (and should be) perfectly normal anywhere and if it makes you feel uncomfortable then I suggest the problem is on your end.

As for you scratching yourself: that is not something for which there are no alternative options, however, breastfeeding a newborn happens frequently and has to happen when it does and no amount of discomfort on your end will change the fact that it is as normal as you eating a sandwich or drinking a glass of milk.

If a woman is doing it 'in an open office for everyone to see' it may mean that your society is more accepting than you think, or that no more suitable alternative was available. If the lady is comfortable with it and you're not you could simply ignore them?

Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#22

Post by jwebb99 »

jacquesm wrote: post #3

Just imagine the harm seeing a breast can do to a vulnerable young child. /s Facebook needs to literally grow up, removing porn is one thing but clinical images, mothers feeding their children and such should not even be up for discussion. It's a fine line between protecting your users from seeing offensive content and outright censorship, good to see them doing the right thing in this case, pity it is still on a 'ca…

> Facebook needs to literally grow up, removing porn is one thing but clinical images, mothers feeding their children and such should not even be up for discussion.

But people are offended by seeing clinical images of nudity, mother feeding their babies, etc. And Facebook wants to placate all of their users so nobody has a reason to leave.

Of course, they can't please everyone, but they'd rather make a fool of themselves before they'd become a more morally/socially opinionated corporation like Starbucks.

Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#23

Post by jacquesm »

jwebb99 wrote: post #22
jacquesm wrote: post #3

Just imagine the harm seeing a breast can do to a vulnerable young child. /s Facebook needs to literally grow up, removing porn is one thing but clinical images, mothers feeding their children and such should not even be up for discussion. It's a fine line between protecting your users from seeing offensive content and outright censorship, good to see them doing the right thing in this case, pity it is still on a 'ca…

> Facebook needs to literally grow up, removing porn is one thing but clinical images, mothers feeding their children and such should not even be up for discussion. But people are offended by seeing clinical images of nudity, mother feeding their babies, etc. And Facebook wants to placate all of their users so nobody has a reason to leave. Of course, they can't please everyone, but they'd rather make a fool of themse…

> But people are offended by seeing clinical images of nudity, mother feeding their babies, etc.

I've yet to meet someone like that. Are you offended by any of this? Is anybody else on HN offended by such images?

Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#24

Post by cloudjacker »

conatico wrote: post #19
protomyth wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The weird thing is I'm around a lot of conservatives in a conservative place in this country, you know, the people who supposedly are the ones getting offended. I haven't found one damn person who thinks Facebook is doing the right thing. I'm really trying to find these offended people, but I cannot. The Vietnam photo censorship was met with quite a bit of confusion since I think most folks misremember it being our h…

The only ones who are offended are the advertisers. As a far right winger, I can't see anything wrong with making sure our women are in good health. :)

And this is an assumption that advertisers would be offended too!

Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#25

Post by alex- »

I find it surprising that this is newsworthy.

It appears that Facebook never argued that the image was in breach of its policies. Just that some software it runs had a bug that miss classified this image.

Then when challenged they apologized and approved the add.

So to me the summary appears to be "Software company has bug that effected one customer, apologies and fixes the issue" which must happen every hour of every day...

Am I missing something?....

Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#26

Post by ravenstine »

jacquesm wrote: post #3

Just imagine the harm seeing a breast can do to a vulnerable young child. /s Facebook needs to literally grow up, removing porn is one thing but clinical images, mothers feeding their children and such should not even be up for discussion. It's a fine line between protecting your users from seeing offensive content and outright censorship, good to see them doing the right thing in this case, pity it is still on a 'ca…

Why can't Facebook filter out whatever they want to filter out? I mean, you wouldn't want to see penises all over your feed, and not everyone necessarily agrees with you about the appearance of breasts(except me, I want more breasts on my Facebook), so I can understand why Facebook would make such a decision without necessarily deeming it as wrong. Nobody has to use Facebook. And their main criterion, "is the internet raising a large enough stink", seems perfectly reasonable to me. But what a weird world we live in that a short-lived incident about womens' breasts ending with an apology from Facebook gets a news story. Then again, it's the BBC, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#27

Post by tn13 »

Facebook is eventually going to get into more systematic mess over this sort of rubbish.

Have one single clear principle and apply is consistently. Change the principle don't make exceptions if needed. "Educational videos wont be removed" could have been a good policy that Google has had for Youtube.

Or even "No Breasts"can be a good policy too. If you want to show breast cancer videos do it on you tube, shoot it with a prop or link to another page. I dont see why that does not work.

Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#28

Post by pyrophane »

Every time I see these I think the same thing: this shouldn't be an issue. If we weren't allowing so few players to define so much of our experience of the internet, it wouldn't matter that much what any single one of them decides to censor. Hopefully it will be that way again someday.

Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#29

Post by vkou »

witty_username wrote: post #20
wyager wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Women leaving their faces uncovered is illegal in many countries. This should have zero bearing on what I can do in my own country.

It's not "should"; that's how it is. Facebook isn't your country.

It's also 'illegal' for women to have their faces covered in some countries.

Does this mean that there should be no pictures of women on Facebook?

Re: Facebook apologises for removing breast cancer awareness video

#30

Post by balls187 »

jacquesm wrote: post #21
Swizec wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If she was doing it in an open office for everyone to see? Probably, yeah. I wouldn't say anything, obviously, but I definitely wouldn't be as comfortable with it as I would, say, a sneeze. I'm sure my female coworkers wouldn't mind vigorous nutsack scratching out in the open for all to see would they? It also is a perfectly natural activity and often necessary. But hey, I also get annoyed at people who chew loudly.…

Swizec, you're disappointing me with these comments. It's maybe related to how your culture views these things but women breastfeeding in public is (and should be) perfectly normal anywhere and if it makes you feel uncomfortable then I suggest the problem is on your end. As for you scratching yourself: that is not something for which there are no alternative options, however, breastfeeding a newborn happens frequentl…

Swizec was talking about using a Breast pump, not breastfeeding.

I'm not sure if any woman would ever want to pump openly in the office.

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