Facebook ‘censors’ Hastings Art
The Facebook page of the Hastings Independent and that of one of its writers have been taken down for reproducing a saucy postcard currently in a charity art exhibition in the town.
The article in Issue 193 was shared with Facebook on 3 February, but HIP’s social media administrator received a message saying that the post had broken their community guidelines due to it being “classed as explicit and containing nudity or sexual activity”. Both his personal account and the Hastings Independent Press Facebook page have since been disabled.
HIP requested a review of the decision as advised by Facebook but has not received any response within the stipulated 30-day timespan. Multiple emails to the social media group have gone unanswered. The telephone number for complaints is no longer active.
HIP’s co-arts Editor Kent Barker described Facebook’s decision as completely absurd. “The reproduction of the postcard shows one nipple. It can’t possibly be classed as being explicit or showing sexual activity. It is, in fact, just censorship of art.”
The row follows moves by the prestigious French Academy of Fine Arts to stop Facebook and Instagram censoring reproductions of famous art works. The academy cited The Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet and Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix as having been removed from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram due to nudity. A statement from the Academy said companies “cannot claim the right to censor the distribution of a work of art on the sole ground that its representation does not fully fall within the criteria they have established”. The statement described the situation as “ludicrous” and that numerous examples of censorship “considerably hamper” the promotion of artwork.
While HIP does not claim that the exhibition at 1200 Postcards of re-imagined mildly saucy images falls into the same category as works by Courbet and Delacroix, it does remain angry that its readers are unable to access the newspaper’s page on the social media platform.
The exhibition was designed to encourage local artists to recreate or re-imagine seaside postcards from bygone times in a contemporary style. The results are to be auctioned for charity and according to HIP’s Kent Barker,
the Facebook ban could have a serious impact on proceeds. “Quite apart from the complete absurdity of the whole situation”, he said, “Facebook’s action is costing HIP money through foregone advertising revenue and the charity – Haven Distribution – could lose funds if the auction attracts fewer bidders”.
• HIP’s Instagram page, is still active and posts and information will continue to be shared regularly through that account.
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