Dozens of naked people protest outside Facebook office

Dozens of naked protesters gathered outside of Facebook’s New York offices to raise concerns about the social media platform censoring works of art featuring nudity.

Artist and photographer Spencer Tunick and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) created the “We The Nipple” nude installation outside of the office, according to a report from tech outlet CNET.

Tunick wrote on Twitter that there were “male nipple stickers covering female presenting nipples and male nipple cards covering all the participant’s genitalia.”{mosads}

NCAC’s head of global policy, Christopher Finan, penned an open letter to the tech giant criticizing Facebook and Instagram for prohibiting nudity in sculpture, painting and photography.

“The nudity ban is punishing for photographers and particularly harms artists whose work focuses on their own bodies, including queer and gender nonconforming artists,” Finan wrote. “It also affects museums and galleries that have difficulty promoting photography exhibitions featuring nudes.”

More than 20 arts and free speech organizations, as well as hundreds of artists, signed onto the “#WeTheNipple” petition asking the platforms to welcome alternatives to the nudity ban.

They suggested allowing users the option to block nudity themselves in addition to filters that would screen for unexpected displays in their feeds.

“Such mechanisms would allow user control, rather than forcing Facebook to judge what content its permissible,” NCAC wrote in the letter. 

The Hill has reached out to Facebook for comment.