Meta Might Alter Their Nudity Policy for Facebook and Instagram, Making it More Respectful of Human Rights
Syed Imran Haider 
Meta has reportedly received suggestions to change its adult nudity policy from its Oversight Board – a group responsible for supervising content moderation policies for Instagram and Facebook. The purpose behind the new suggestions is to be more compressive and respectful of human rights. The Oversight Board capsized Meta’s decision to delete two Instagram posts that showed transgender and non-binary people with uncovered chests earlier this month.
According to reports, a US couple, including a non-binary and transgender, took the case to the Oversight Board. They posted two pictures showing bare chests with covered nipples on Instagram in 2021 and 2022. The couple captioned the posts as ‘transgender healthcare’ and wrote they were fundraising and selling shirts to help one of them to undergo gender-affirming surgery to remove breast issues.
Many users reported Meta about the sensitivity of the posts, whereas content moderation Als also sent a series of alerts. It led the human moderation team to review those posts several times to prevent potential violations of numerous community standards. As a result, Meta removed both posts for violating the Sexual Solicitation Community Standard.
Appeal against the Content Moderation Decision
Following the decision of content moderation, the couple appealed to Instagram and the Oversight Board, saying the reason for deleting the posts did not justify their actual intention for them. The Oversight Board accepted the case, and its moderation team restored the posts deciding it had been wrong to delete them. It was too late for the Content Overseeing Board to give broader suggestions for the company’s adult nudity policies.
Meta released the decision in the couple’s favor this week. According to the Oversight Board decision, removing the posts was out of line with human rights responsibilities and Meta’s values and Community Standards. It highlighted the fundamental issues in the company’s adult nudity policies.
The Board’s decision also found that Meta has too broad a guidance about the Sexual Solicitation policy for the stated rationale and publicly available guidelines. The Oversight Board noted that the Sexual Activity Community Standards and Adult Nudity prohibit posts showing female nipples in unspecified circumstances, which inappropriately builds a binary gender view.
Confusing Restrictions and Expectations
The Oversight Board said Meta has confusing restrictions and expectations in its rules on depicting female nipples, especially as they can apply to non-binary and transgender people. The platform can show female nipples in medical contexts, including top surgery, not where anyone traditionally goes bare-chested
According to Meta’s board, the company’s policies on adult nudity may lead to a great barrier for women, transgenders, and non-binary people to be expressive on its social media platforms. It also argues that such cases can disproportionally affect LGBTQI+ individuals. The board overturned Meta’s decision to delete the posts and gave them three recommendations to improve its policies around adult nudity, nipples, and LGBTQI+ expressions.
Meta needs to define an objective, right-respecting, and clear criteria to govern its Sexual Activity Community Standard and adult nudity policies, treating people in a manner with global human rights standards and without gender discrimination. The company should add more details to its standard on the above criteria that may lead to the removal of the content. Lastly, Meta should revise its rules for moderators, allowing them to more accurately reflect the public’s rules on the Adult Nudity policy and reduce the chances of enforcement errors.
While it is a victory for free expression, the Board’s recommendations can lead to many significant changes to how Instagram and Facebook moderate nudity on their platforms. Meta welcomed the decision made by its Oversight Board and said it restored the affected posts. The company will conduct a review based on the Board’s recommendation and release an update once it finalizes how it has to move forward.
