Sunday, January 8, 2012

Facebook harasses moms over breastfeeding photos

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Since this blog post was written on Sunday afternoon, Jan 9, 2012, there have been a number of developments. More moms were suspended. Facebook's Canadian pr person told Canadian mothers to stop posting breastfeeding photos despite an apology last week in the US for removing them. Updates are here: FB! Harasses women for breastfeeding photos UPDATES  What can you do to help? Here: Facebook get your hands off our breasts

Facebook harasses moms over breastfeeding photos, Jan 9, 2012

With my youngest weaned and in elementary school, and some of my oldest having their own babies, I thought I would never again experience one of worst things that can happen to a breastfeeding woman – being told to leave, cover up or "do that somewhere else."


Yet on this sunny Sunday afternoon I find myself devoting time to Facebook's decision to delete my account instead of spending time with my family.


Why? Because yesterday I stepped up to help my friend Emma Kwasnica whose Facebook account was again threatened with deletion over a photo of her breastfeeding one of her children.

Here's where things stand now. After suspending my account this morning, Facebook made me walk through a bunch of hoops and has now restricted me from posting for 24 hours. So I can see my page but I can't post.


But I can blog. 

The photo they removed from my account is the same one they removed from Emma's account. It is at the top of the FB! Stop Harassing Emma Kwasnica ... page that I helped set up to draw attention to Emma's situation.
The offending photo.

After telling me that I had violated Facebook's statement of rights and responsibilities, Facebook presented me with a list of about 50 of my own photos and asked me to remove ones that contain nudity or are inappropriately sexual. 


The photos selection include pictures of Karen Speed, Monica Eggink, and Lee-Ann Grenier breastfeeding their nurslings at the Breastfeeding Action Committee of Edmonton (BACE) event at West Edmonton Mall, Target, Welcome to Breastfeeding Friendly Canada!, last week.  There are also pictures of a Human Milk 4 Human Babies (HM4HB) gathering in Emma's living room in Montreal with Sandra Wesley and Jessica Leduc breastfeeding on Emma's couch, and pictures from the livestream of the presentation to Emma of the beautiful HM4HB quilt, with handcrafted squares commemorating milksharing and breastfeeding from all over the world. In one picture Jessica Leduc is breastfeeding her baby, in her own living room. Included in the list for me to consider for deletion are pictures of my husband and my grandchildren baking cookies in my kitchen, and even a picture of my daughter from the day she found her wedding dress. 


Renaissance painting, Pablo de San Leocadio
Virgen de la Leche (Virgin of the Milk), (1445-1520)
Some people have asked if my account was removed because of my new profile picture, which I changed yesterday in support of Emma. That picture is also on the list presented to me to review for removal, but it was not removed by Facebook. It is a detail from a Renaissance painting, Pablo de San Leocadio's Vergin de la Leche (Virgin of the Milk), (1445-1520). 

I switched my Facebook profile photo to the detail from that photo because it so closely resembles the picture Emma was asked to remove – an older child at the breast, mouth open, nipple grasped. The only real difference is Emma's daughter is smiling with delight.


Facebook recently apologized to another woman, Heahter Stultz, in North Carolina, for a similar incident. They told news outlet WCNC,

"We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful and we're very glad to know that it is important for mothers to share their experience with others on Facebook." 

Facebook appears to have a disconnect between its policies and its practices, a situation not disimilar to the recent concerns expressed about Target, the retailer who has an excellent policy supporting women breastfeeding anytime, anywhere in their store – but they cannot seem to train their staff to follow the policy and women are harassed in their stores for breastfeeding.


Facebook seems to have the same problem. Emma Kwasnica has had her account deleted several times over this issue. A number of other women have faced similar problems and I can tell you that yesterday many women who wanted to support Emma were afraid to post her photo up on their accounts in solidarity for fear of deletion. This means many women are censoring themselves and not posting photos of breastfeeding women and children because they are afraid they will be harassed or punished by Facebook.

Facebook is shutting down accounts and removing photos of activities that are LEGAL AND PROTECTED by by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Our Public Health Agency of Canada affirms that right, telling women "You and your baby have the right to breastfeed anywhere, anytime."



Facebook is taking punitive action against women for displaying photos of a legal act.

I will be looking into available options to take legal action against Facebook for this violation of my rights.  




------------------
Blog Roll in support of Emma Kwasnica and women everywhere who are harassed by Facebook for posting breastfeeding photos:




What I see when I breastfeed my toddler - Today's Parent/run-at-home-mom
Facebook no nudity policy - gender-focus
Whatever happened to women and children first - progressive parenting
Weaned. beingthebiggirl
Hey Facebook! Nursing is normal - mama*cue
Facebook and breastfeeding - picklemetoo
Facebook is angering me - onequartermama
More on breastfeeding prejudice greenmommy142
An apology - mythnomore


Blog accounts and commentary on past incidents:


Hey Facebook! Breastfeeding isn't obscene - plus2point4, November, 2011
(this one refers to the official petition site on Facebook with 258,000 supporters... and about to be taken down by Facebook.)
Facebook censorship of breastfeeding - morethanamumblog, November, 2011

Facebook: rape funny, breastfeeding immoral - drdawgsblog, October, 2011

Invitational Rhetoric on Facebook: Breastfeeding Advocacy Part 2 - nuwaminlittlewiseone, April, 2011 



Facebook shuts down support group for breastfeeding moms - MommyNewsBlog.com, Jan 4, 2011
(This mom was shut down for two weeks and says she's afraid to post certain things now to Facebook for fear of being shut down again)



News coverage:


Latest news via news.google.com << link will take you to current news on the issue


mothering.com - Jan 10, 2012
Breastfeeding mom takes on Facebook nudity policy, Vancouver Sun, Jan 10, 2012
(Also carried in the Vancouver Province and on Canada.com)

Some news coverage of past incidents:

Facebook: Breastfeeding is normal, Mothering Magazine, April, 2011
Facebook vs. nursing moms, round 2, New York Times, Jan 6, 2011




15 comments:

  1. Thank you Jodine!!
    Your point about policies and prectices are interesting....and the self-censorship issue is borne out of fear - it is Facebook using the fear of ILLEGAL deletion!!! There are laws about this in Europe, and the USA, and countless other countries worldwide!!!

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  2. Thanks, Denise. I know Facebook has run afoul of the Privacy Commissioner here in Canada, see the news release below. I am not exactly sure what route to take, as I'm not a lawyer, but I intend to pursue this. Too many women are being harassed.

    "Facebook agrees to address Privacy Commissioner’s concerns

    Privacy Commissioner of Canada satisfied that proposed changes to the social networking site’s privacy practices and policies would bring Facebook into compliance with Canadian law...."
    Newsrelease, August, 2009
    http://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2009/nr-c_090827_e.cfm

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  3. Jodine, your tireless dedication to women and breastfeeding is amazing! Thank-You

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  4. Jodine, I would like to post some of your excellent words at TERA very shortly (www.tera.ca). As I may have explained elsewhere, in a sense there's no contradiction between Facebook's "policy" and its horrible, brutal action against you, because its policy is a bunch of contradictions, stupidities, and lies and means nothing. In that sense it doesn't exist. It never has existed.

    I know that doesn't help much, but at least it clarifies that Facebook is behaving like Germany in the 1930s and East Germany from 1950 to 1990.

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  5. Thank you Jodine. For everything. I'm honored to use Emma's banned photo as my profile pic. Nothing has happened so far as I'm a 'nobody' with less than 100 friends.

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  6. Great article jodine!
    Thanks for standing up for women s rights

    Karen

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  7. Jodine, Thanks for doing this. I went on facebook a few minutes ago and searched for you. Because you are one of my friends your name and profile picutre popped up right away. when I clicked on you it said something to the effect of 'this file can not be found'. The funny part is that when your name and profile picture came up it included the wonderful breastfeeding photo that your account was taken down for! Interesting that they would shut you down for the photo but continue to show the photo on their service.

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  8. Hey, Linda, ironic, hey?

    I think most of this is Facebook a) not knowing what is doing and b) not respecting the women who have been harassed over this issue. Don't they realize that a great majority of their user base was breastfed at some point in their lives?

    The photo that remains is my last profile photo - it is profile that I put up in support of Emma - it's from a Renaissance painting. It is on the list of photos that FB asked me to review, but the actual one they suspended me for is the one I posted of Emma Kwasnica breastfeeding her daughter - I posted a screenshot of the notice Emma received telling her it had been removed, and I included that notice above the photo.

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  10. I'm not clear on what I can do to support now. I've been holding off of "sharing" the story on my page because I was waiting for something really clear and action-able--to have something to ask friends to do (petition? I don't know). I've liked the support page, but want to do more. I have so much respect and admiration for Emma and all she does for babies (and moms and families)--she is like a booby super hero. Because of her I've had the life-altering opportunity to share milk with a little baby in my community for a whole year. Please keep us all posted as developments occur!
    Thank you!
    Annie

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    Replies

    1. Annie, have you seen Jodine's latest? Might have what you're after.
      http://jodinesworld.blogspot.com/2012/01/facebook-and-breastfeeding-photos.html

      Delete

  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Thanks, Annie, I appreciate the feedback. I've put a link right at the top that takes people right to the "take action" page.

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  13. Hello Jodine, thank you for linking my blog post from PLUS 2.4.I'd be happy be share this post around.

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  14. I've just been disabled on FB for 30 days for sharing Emma Kwasnicas Note: https://www.facebook.com/notes/emma-kwasnica/world-wide-protests-to-call-on-facebook-to-leave-breastfeeding-photos-alone/10150526171329915. This is just ridiculous! And I have 2 pages on FB to run. I'm so pissed. Grrr

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