Facebook Unnecessarily Censors Breast Cancer Survivors

Facebook's unnecessary censorship is causing controversy again!

Everyone's favorite social networking site once angered users for deleting a picture of two men kissing, but now the site has upset a breast cancer awareness group!

Women involved in the Breast Cancer Awareness Body Painting Project have been flying to Florida’s UNCOMMON Gallery from all over the country at their own expense in order to have their chest painted, then proudly pose for the camera.

The goal is to find beauty in their body that has been scarred by a mastectomy, while reclaiming a sense of spirit and hope.

However, the participants were shocked to find out that Facebook considered posting these deeply moving and personal pictures of body art to be a violation of the terms of use that reads:

"You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence."

Michael Colanero, the man who organized the project and created the artwork, is outraged because he believes the images are far from inappropriate, explaining:

"I want them to be in oncology clinics and children’s hospitals. I’ve gone out of my way to make them non-sexual. People come into the gallery and put their hands on the pictures, crying. They can empathize and just learn and be more aware."

His female models, who have had their pics repeatedly taken down on Facebook, are not happy either and spoke out against the site, saying things like:

"There's men on the same site that can be topless… Those men with what we call "moobs," or male boobs, those big tattoos across their chest, why is that OK?"

"I want to know how Facebook plans to live up to their responsibility to protect free speech and ensure that an open and informative dialog can take place on their network."

Facebook, however, feels they have lived up to their responsibility and released a statement reading:

"Images that were removed violated our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which prohibits photos of nude people. This policy is designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users."

Boo! C'mon Mark Zuckerburg! Are you really going to pick on breast cancer survivors when people are free to post pics and videos of them doing all kinds of illegal substances?

We have to agree with the artist and his models here. Not only are the photos not sexually suggestive, their gorgeous works of art that are empowering women!

The breast cancer awareness group has started an online petition and has collected over 350 signatures so far, but needs a 5,000 for their voice to be heard. If you think this is another whack case of unnecessary censorship, then click here and let your voice be heard!

[Image via Michael Colanero/UNCOMMON Gallery.]

Tags: artist, awareness, body art, body painting project, breast cancer, florida, hospital, uncommon gallery, women