This development is just so jaw-droppingly ridiculous that I felt compelled to report it. The following message appeared on Season of Mist’s Facebook page early this morning (Pacific Time):
“French death grind extremists BENIGHTED just had their Facebook account removed for displaying their new album cover. Everywhere else on this planet you can see that it depicts the breast of a woman. Maybe they should have shown an AK 47 instead as that seems to be more natural and acceptable. Let’s talk about blatant and ridiculous censorship, shall we… ?”
As you can see above, Season of Mist has changed its own Facebook banner to censor the image of Benighted’s new album cover (the title is Carnivore Sublime), apparently to preserve SoM’s own presence on Facebook (or at least to further drive home the point of that announcement quoted above).
Facebook hosts pages by porn stars. In fact, there’s a Facebook page called “pornstars” whose banner includes this photo:
But hey, there’s not a nipple anywhere to be seen in that photo, so it’s all good, right? (The “pornstars” page has 661,000 likes, compared to Benighted’s approximately 8,000 — a number that of course will not be growing.)
And yes, Facebook also hosts pages devoted to AK-47s, including a page called “AK-47 Fan“, which includes this photo in the banner:
No nipples there. Just a young man with his back to the camera, proudly brandishing his sporting implement of choice while demurely hiding his nipples.
And although I haven’t taken the time to look, I’m pretty sure there are metal-band FB pages with with banners of album art depicting rape and evisceration of women (I’m thinking about certain brutal death bands). But of course it is the insidious nipple that so threatens the corruption and degradation of young minds that it cannot be allowed to pollute the holy temple of Facebook, even if the nipple appears in an image of a young mother that’s far from lascivious.
I’m sure that Facebook doesn’t monitor all the bazillions of pages it hosts. Instead, it responds to complaints. And so some douchebag must have complained about the Benighted page, and Facebook reacted.
By the way, here’s what Facebook says about nudity on its current Community Standards page (note the irony):
“Facebook has a strict policy against the sharing of pornographic content and any explicitly sexual content where a minor is involved. We also impose limitations on the display of nudity. We aspire to respect people’s right to share content of personal importance, whether those are photos of a sculpture like Michelangelo’s David or family photos of a child breastfeeding.”
Here also is a statement about “Reporting Abuse” that appears on that same page:
“If you see something on Facebook that you believe violates our terms, you should report it to us. Please keep in mind that reporting a piece of content does not guarantee that it will be removed from the site.
Because of the diversity of our community, it’s possible that something could be disagreeable or disturbing to you without meeting the criteria for being removed or blocked. For this reason, we also offer personal controls over what you see, such as the ability to hide or quietly cut ties with people, Pages, or applications that offend you.”
In case you don’t know what the uncensored Benighted album cover looks like, here it is:
There’s also a censored version of the album cover, which I’m told by someone who follows the band that Benighted actually substituted for the nipply one, to no avail:
And now, let’s have some Benighted rage that’s a fitting musical accompaniment for how I’m feeling at the moment (thanks to Vonlughlio for the tip on this ridiculousness):
UPDATE (Feb 16, 2014): Benighted now have a new Facebook page:
25 Responses to “NIPPLE RIPPLE: BENIGHTED BANNED FROM FACEBOOK”
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My poor innocent mind has been sullied by your filth for the last time!
wow…i can’t believe FB yanked their account instead of just asking for the photo to be removed. seriously, what the fuck???
Actually… not sure this whole thing makes sense, because accounts coming down is usually a final thing for FB, not a first line action. What am I missing here?
But wow, wouldn’t it be great publicity if someone made an issue of it, and the label promotes said issue, and a bunch of people on the anti-censorship train are made aware of the album who didn’t know about it before, and then They spread the word too? I would call that a Win.
Say…
Conspiracy theorist.
hahahaha hardly 😉 But assuming it’s a case of FB being a total dick (not an unreasonable assumption), it’s still great publicity. People getting their panties in a wad en masse is always an attention getter.
Unless they’re not wearing any…
I’m notifying Facebook about your filthy mouth.
I’m typing naked. Which always makes the barista look at me funny.
after considering the potential publicity that this little event might create for Benighted, i’ve taken drastic steps and posted an extremely controversial photo on my Godless Angel FB page. fingers crossed.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Godless-Angel/490596044303778?ref=hl
That is just disgusting. I bet that’s an underage cat. You should be ashamed of yourself.
fame has changed me, i admit it.
Dude, nipples are terrifying. Seriously, nipples might be the biggest threat to modern society since reefer cigarettes.
It’s completely logical that a square centimeter of slightly pinker skin is HORRIFYING.
Right?
Glad the FB page has been taken down. because this band sucks and so does everything on that shit label. BTW its not really Facebook- its Murika and its BS- a movie will be given an R rating because of an exposed nip/tit . Meanwhile massive violence like Avengers is barely pg-13. The whole system is fuked up… FB is based in america and thus operates under its laws…Most likely the page was taken down because someone reported it.
Actually a lot of us here like the band and the label, despite how much they “suck”.
A shit label? Seriously? All these bands are shit?
http://www.season-of-mist.com/bands
Yeah, after looking at this list, I’d say Jako needs a cockpunch.
It’s still no Profound Lore, however.
America. Where depictions of violent death are no cause for alarm, but a nipple will get you into all kinds of hell.
Obvious troll is very obvious…but for the record, no label that carries Destroyer 666, Revenge and Inquisition can ever be entirely shitty
Facebook is so stupid . Yeah I get peoples right to not see things that offend them but its not like you are showing a picture of a donkey sodomizing a lady . It’s just a lady breast feeding . Shit I’ve seen video footage of women giving birth on Facebook . Wanna talk offensive watch some woman spread her legs and push a baby out of her vagina which stenches as wide as a football . Man I’ll be scarred for life after watching that shit . Well hope you manage to get your Facebook privileges reinstated .
You know, when I think that certain classic album covers shaped who I am today – classics like Mayhem’s Dawn of the Black Hearts, or Torso Fuck’s Erotic Diarrhea Fantasy – neither of which were so perverse as to show a woman’s bare breast, I am so grateful for Facebook’s policy shielding me from nipples. If I had seen what you just showed me today when I was young and impressionable, I might have turned out to be some kind of lonely, sad deviant, or maybe even a serial killer.
But some things can’t be unseen, so now you’ll probably hear my neighbors on the news saying “He seemed pretty normal, like a nice guy who just kept to himself”.
Thanks, No Clean Singing.
NoCleanSinging: Ruining impressionable minds since 2009
New sub-header?
A nipple, in an innocent context like, leading to censorship is simply retarded. It renders me speechless!
Facebook is a lousy homepage (with it’s stupid time line and everything) anyways, so tell your favorite friends and bands to FUCK facebook!!! Facebook is occupied by you parents, relatives, colleagues and neighbors anyways, so abandon the rusty ship!
I wonder why this isn’t the default cover: http://i.imgur.com/a3NUK5q.jpg
This one of the dumbest fucking things I have ever read. I like FB and all, but they really need to get over themselves when it comes to what they deem “offensive.”
sucky band, sucky video, the type of shit only a retarded 13 year old white trash fuck would like!