Facebook deletes picture of bathing woman's elbow as indecent

PHOTOGRAPHS of women breastfeeding were deemed indecent. Now Facebook has deleted a picture of a woman’s elbow for being too rude.

FIRST it banned photographs of mothers breastfeeding, then a cartoon dot depicting a woman's nipple, now Facebook has deleted a picture of a woman's elbow for being indecent.

The photograph showing a woman in a bath with her elbow resting on the rim was posted to Facebook by online magazine Theories of the Deep Understanding of Things as an experiment to test the social media network’s censorship policies.

While the photo did not depict any actual nudity, the position of the woman’s elbow made it appear at first glance as though her breast and nipple were showing.

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As reported by the magazine this morning on its Facebook page, site moderators quickly removed the picture for violation of content guidelines.

"FB moderators can't tell an elbow from a dangerous, filthy, uncanny and violent female breast," they wrote.

"No questions were asked and the post is down. Imagine our surprise."

In February the social media network attracted a barrage of criticism for suspending more than 390 users who had posted photographs of themselves breastfeeding.

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"On some occasions, breastfeeding photos contain nudity - for example an exposed breast that is not being used for feeding - and therefore violate our terms,” Facebook told News Ltd at the time.

"When such photos are reported to us and are found to violate our policies, the person who posted the photo is contacted, and the photos are removed."

In September, prominent US magazine the New Yorker was temporarily banned from Facebook after a cartoon line drawing of a topless Adam and Eve was deemed to violate the site’s community standards on "nudity and sex”.

A copy of Facebook’s content moderation guidelines leaked to website Gawker in February revealed the site bans depictions of nudity, excluding "male nipples", and sexual activity whether nude or clothed.