Facebook continues facing criticism over its content practices — among other things, for banning one of rock's most iconic album covers.
Just before the summer solstice, the site Ultimate Classic Rock reported that Facebook had flagged one of its images as inappropriate: the cover of Led Zeppelin's 1973 album Houses of the Holy (not to be confused with the 1975 song). In response to backlash from users and fans, Facebook soon told UCR that it plans to adjust its content review algorithms to allow the image's use across the site.
The Grammy-nominated album cover, a collage depicting nude children climbing a mountain, was created by acclaimed classic rock-era design group Hipgnosis, who also worked with Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, and many other notable acts. UCR said this was the first time Facebook had "intervened" in their use of the artwork, despite more than 30 prior such uses, but the platform's algorithm seemingly had a history with the image.
Earlier this year, one Led Zeppelin fan created a Change.org petition in response to Facebook's flagging and/or removal of posts that use the image, such as YouTube links to the album's tunes and, reportedly, the link to the petition itself. Loudwire also reported that the image has led to repeated warnings for some users, and even "outright" deletion of one or more Zep fanpages.
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Facebook's site-patrolling algorithm and human moderators (as well as its policy-makers) have struggled with controversial album covers before, and nudity overall. The company has consistently tried to make its algorithm(s) detect when inappropriate, illegal, or otherwise flagged images are used on its platforms, from stolen nudes to child pornography, but also sparked concerns about censorship along the way.
As Digital Music News pointed out this month, "Facebook moderators typically have five seconds to make a Yes or No decision, [reportedly]. If a human flags an image as possibly having suspect material, Facebook’s algorithm aggressively removes copies of the image."
“Since children as young as 13 years old use Instagram/Facebook and the app is available in third-party app stores, there are rules regarding nudity and solicitation that we have to follow,” a Facebook spokeswoman told Ultimate Classic Rock. “We place limitations on the display of this content to limit exposure of sensitive content.”
“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.” The company said it plans to handle other such culturally significant but rule-bending or -breaking content on a case by case basis.
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Facebook also commented, “Nudity can be shared for a variety of reasons, including as a form of protest, to raise awareness about a cause, or for educational or medical reasons. We default to removing sexual images to prevent non-consensual or underage content from being shared."
Earlier in June, Facebook faced another form of push-back for its handling of human bodies, and specifically women's upper ones. At a protest outside Facebook and Instagram's headquarters in New York, over 100 anti-censorship activists got nude to protest the platforms' policies.
As Rolling Stone reported, "The stunt, orchestrated by the National Coalition Against Censorship and photographer/artist Spencer Tunick, featured the nude models’ nipples and genitals [covered] 'with stickers of photographed male nipples, to highlight the rigid — and anachronistic — gender inequality in existing nudity policies,' the group said."
Last week, Facebook also received another, perhaps more urgent reminder that its methods for dispelling hateful or violent content are lacking, too. The final piece in a three-part investigative series by Reveal drew attention to US police officers' Islamophobic and seemingly recourse-free posts across the platform, among other dangerous, bigoted content.
Reveal's website even includes a click-through warning page for the article due to the offensiveness-level of comments discussed therein, and duly so: the article's introduction, quoting an all-caps slur from the Facebook page of a Missouri sheriff's deputy, is still arresting.
