For the latest edition of Télérama magazine, the DJ and activist Leslie Barbara Butch poses nude in one. " Why are we rejecting the big guys?" Asked the weekly. No response from Instagram's algorithm, owned by Facebook: it simply tried to make the photo disappear from its users' streams.
Read also: "We are not here to censor": for the first time, French moderators of Facebook speak
Wednesday, February 5, a reader of the magazine wrote to the editors: " About this very nice cover on grossophobia, where one of my friends poses, Leslie Barbara Butch, I wanted to relay it yesterday on Facebook to pay tribute to her , and to you for your courage. What was not my surprise to immediately receive a threat of censorship ”.
The Instagram account of Leslie Barbara Butch, who shared the front page on February 3, was also blocked. She has since called on Internet users to share the photo on their own accounts as support.
Several personalities, like the author Virginie Despentes, then decided to participate in the “#barbarabutchchallenge”, by sharing the photograph in their turn.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, is known for enforcing very strict nudity rules. Images of female genitals or nipples are strictly prohibited on these platforms. However, " the photo of Leslie Barbara Butch shows neither sex, nor nipple, obviously, but a lot of skin, underlines Télérama . Too much, apparently, for social media . " The DJ's account has since been reactivated. " I am invisiblise ," she said to the magazine. [...] This kind of censorship is serious, it only happens for the big guys. ” " I'm really tired of this, " she added to her personal account. Instagram, contacted by several media, apologized: " We want Instagram to be an inclusive place where everyone feels comfortable enough to be themselves. The content was removed in error and we are sorry . ”
Fat people have been denouncing the censorship policy of social networks, which often works against them, for several years now. In February 2019, a large model had seen one of her publications disappear, where she posed, disappeared because of "pornography". Again, Instagram then republished the image a few days later, apologizing. The following month, the author of On ne ne ne ne née grosse, Gabrielle Deydier, protested that she could not use the hashtag “#grosse” on Instagram. Reason invoked by the social network: " publications containing the words or tags you are looking for often encourage behavior that can harm or lead to death ". However, behind this hashtag, nothing contravenes the rules set by Instagram: “ our bodies do not break any law. We exist, ”said Gabrielle Deydier indignantly.
A charter often criticized
More generally, the strict social media charter regarding nudity is subject to debate. In 2011, Facebook deactivated the account of a school teacher who posted the painting The Origin of the World , by Gustave Courbet. In 2018, the court ruled illegal a Facebook clause allowing him to suspend an account without providing justification, but on the merits, the complainant was unable to have his account reactivated.
Also read: "Edouard Philippe", "grossophobia", "trans" ... The new words from the Robert dictionary
Télérama does not fail to recall that its account was also suspended, a few years ago and for several hours, for having shared a photo of this same painting.