The
New Yorker’s very popular Facebook page found itself on the wrong side of
Facebook censorship on Monday and their page was temporarily banned.
At
issue is a cartoon by Mick Stevens depicting an Adam and Eve scenario sitting
under a tree.
Facebook
content moderators took offense to the display of nipples in the cartoon.
Nipples are not allowed on Facebook. Especially not “female nipple bulging”.
Apparently cartoon nipples are equally offensive to the site moderators that
flagged the content.
Gawker
had an eye opening interview with a
former site moderator a while back and gives the reader an inside view of how
content moderators do their job and published the somewhat lengthy and all too
vague guidelines that content moderators must adhere to. It’s a
thankless job,
for sure. But someone’s got to do it.
What
has now become known as ‘NippleGate’ at the New Yorker has snowballed further
into controversy by the cartoonist offering a tongue in cheek solution
suggesting he draw clothes on his subjects. To his disbelief, his humor went
unnoticed as a couple of boobs over at Gawker and New York
Magazine’s Daily Intel column
reported his offer as an honest solution. C’mon Guys! Can’t you take a joke?
Adam
and Eve did not wear sweat shirts and yoga pants.
The
original cartoon can be found all over the Internet by now. But for hilarious
commentary by the artist and a quick nipple drawing lesson head over to the New
Yorker’s blog spot.
Facebook,
as reported by the Daily News has
apologized and maintains that the debacle was unintentional. With countless
moderators around the world at the ready to zap offensive content, Eve’s
nipples didn’t have a chance.