The biggest social media platform in the world is going to look very silly after we discovered that Facebook censors political comment as ‘nudity or sexual imagery’.

This Writer has just been forced to appeal to Facebook’s independent Oversight Board over its decision to block links to the Vox Political article Is Vox Political having an effect on politics from the bottom up? on the ridiculous basis that it promotes “nudity or sexual imagery”.

The piece was published on March 11 and Facebook’s automatic – machine – decision-makers have been complaining about it ever since.

Here’s the text of my appeal:

On March 11, 2024, I published an article on my website entitled “Is Vox Political having an effect on politics from the bottom up”, with the image Facebook finds offensive as the featured image.

It referred to an emerging satirical fashion in UK politics, describing the UK party of government (the Conservatives) and main opposition party (Labour) and their leaders as “two cheeks of the same backside”.

I had used this phrase in a post on ‘X’ in February, and it was subsequently repeated by newly-elected MP George Galloway – IN PARLIAMENT. Later, someone else turned it into an infographic and it was this image that Facebook seems to find offensive, after I used it to support my article suggesting that my comment may have provoked the emerging trend.

The image features the faces of Labour Party leader Keir Starmer and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak, superimposed over a picture of a man’s bottom. The image is not sexualised in any way. None of the body parts mentioned as forbidden in Facebook’s guidelines appear. It has very clearly and obviously been created for humorous, satirical, political purposes and has no sexual meaning at all.

As such, it should qualify as use of the image for purposes of information, education and humour – and should certainly not be considered to be sexual content. Anybody deriving sexual gratification from seeing the faces of Sunak and Starmer superimposed on a man’s bottom deserves pity – and possibly psychological help – more than anything else.

I fear this is an occasion where Facebook’s reliance on machines to make its decisions may make Facebook look very bad. Not only is it mistaken about the purpose of the image but it also comes across as an attempt to gag free speech.

I expect those of you who are long-term Vox Political readers will already know how I’m going to summarise this:

In its prudishness over bottoms, Facebook is making an ass of itself.

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