It has been established for some time that the folks at Facebook are not overly fond of nipples. Or, at least, of their public display. Or, at least, of their public display on Facebook.Some time ago, there was much consternation over the absurdity of removing breastfeeding pictures that were displayed on Facebook pages. It seemed this week that the anti-nipple (female nipple) policy continued to be exercised with ruthless precision.
Ask Victoria Buckley. Buckley is an Australian jewelry designer who seems to be quite successful. She has her own, rather active, Facebook fan page upon which she features her wares, her ads, and, occasionally, her feelings.
Last year, Buckley launched her Ophelia Collection. The Ophelia in question is a creature specially created by artist Marina Bychova of Enchanted Doll. She "lives in a tiny enchanted world of beauty, surrounded by treasures of platinum and rose gold," says Buckley's Web site. In case I hadn't made it clear, Ophelia is a doll. No, literally.
However, she also happens to be a naked doll.
A promotional picture of her with Buckley's jewelry sat happily on her Facebook page for months until, one fair morning last weekend, she told the Sydney Morning Herald that she received six e-mails from Facebook telling her that the nipples were "inappropriate content."
Buckley told the Herald that she had the same pictures, and even the doll itself, in her Sydney store for months and no one minded.
I should add that Buckley's jewelry is not cheap tat. And if you wanted to buy an Ophelia doll, even a naked one, this might cost you some 40,000 Australian dollars. However, as last week wore on, Buckley claimed on her Facebook fan page that Facebook continued to remove images, even though they were already censored.
"The images they are removing are already censored, but they are doing it to IMPLY I am breaking their guidelines. I suspect their next move may be to close this group even though I have been very careful to toe the Facebook line from the very moment I got a complaint," she wrote.
While a "Save Ophelia" Facebook group was quickly created, that was reportedly taken down too. Buckley believes that this whole Nipplegate affair may have been caused by just one sole, misguided complaint.
