Instagram and Facebook to lift ban on breasts for only trans and non-binary, not biological women

Meta’s Oversight Board has recently announced a new policy that will allow transgender and non-binary individuals to post their nipples on Facebook and Instagram. With that being said biological women are out of luck at the moment.

The official "Free The Nipple" campaign, which was intended to provide biological women with the freedom to show their breasts without judgment or censorship, this decision has been met with discontent from many Facebook and Instagram users who have yet to see any tangible change.

The decision came after an appeal by two Instagram users who identified as transgender and non-binary respectively. The two had previously posted images of themselves topless, which were then flagged by other users and removed from the platform. The Oversight Board overturned this decision, citing their commitment to upholding freedom of expression on their platforms. 

In response, Meta has established a new process to monitor whether or not such images should be allowed on the platform. This process involves human reviewers who are tasked with assessing both the user’s sex and gender identity before allowing or denying access to certain content. According to a spokesperson for Meta, “we are constantly evaluating our policies to make our platforms safer for everyone, including members of the LGBTQ+ community." 

This news comes in stark contrast to past actions taken by Facebook; in 2013 they took down clips from “Free The Nipple," a documentary about allowing female toplessness in public - demonstrating its past tendency towards oversexualizing breasts and censoring female nudity. With this latest move, however, it appears that Facebook is taking small steps at changing course.