Facebook and Instagram may allow transgender and non-binary users to flash their bare breasts — but women who were born female and who are eager to “free the nipple” are out of luck, according to Meta’s advisory board.
Meta’s Oversight Board — an independent body of experts which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called the company’s “Supreme Court” for content moderation and censorship policies — ordered Facebook and Instagram to lift a ban on images of topless women for anyone who identifies as transgender or non-binary, meaning they view themselves as neither male or female.
“The same image of female-presenting nipples would be prohibited if posted by a cisgender woman but permitted if posted by an individual self-identifying as non-binary,” the board noted in its decision.
A “cisgender” person is anyone who identifies as the sex or gender that they were assigned at birth.
The board cited a recent decision to overturn a ban on two Instagram posts by a couple that describes themselves as transgender and non-binary that posed topless but covered their nipples — only to have the post flagged by other users.
Meta banned the image, but the couple won their appeal and the photo was restored online.
Meta will rely on “human reviewers” who will be tasked with “quickly assess[ing] both a user’s sex, as this policy applies to ‘female nipples,’ and their gender identity,” the board said.
