The Guardian: ‘There is no standard’: investigation finds AI algorithms objectify women’s bodies. “AI tools rate photos of women as more sexually suggestive than those of men, especially if nipples, pregnant bellies or exercise is involved.” Considering Facebook’s longstanding history of incorrectly moderating anything vaguely resembling a breast, I can’t say I’m shocked.
International Atomic Energy Agency: IAEA Launches Database on Breast Milk Intake. “The IAEA’s Database on Human Milk Intake is a growing global collection of studies, currently representing research from 28 countries across all regions, using the nuclear technique, deuterium oxide dose-to-mother (DTM), to determine how much breast milk breastfed infants consume.”
Evening Standard: Protesters dressed as giant breasts march outside Facebook’s London office. “Medical tattooists and breast cancer survivors dressed up as giant breasts at the headquarters near Oxford Circus. Some claim their pictures have been removed and their accounts blocked. This prevents breast cancer survivors from learning about possible treatments. The campaigners said they should be able to post images of their experience without being wrongly sexualised.”
BBC: Instagram says sorry for removing Pedro Almodovar film poster. “Instagram’s owner Facebook has reversed a ban on a poster for Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s new film, showing a nipple producing a drop of milk.”
Los Angeles Times: They decided to make it the ‘Hollyboob’ sign because of Instagram ‘censorship’. “Two social media influencers who managed to make the Hollywood sign read ‘Hollyboob’ before being arrested on suspicion of trespassing Monday said they did so to challenge censorship on Instagram. One of them, they said, lost millions of followers — and part of her livelihood — when her accounts were shuttered for nudity. That their stunt also raised awareness for breast cancer and brought smiles to faces around the world, they said, were bonuses.”
New York Times: Will Instagram Ever ‘Free the Nipple’?. “For years, artists have put pressure on Facebook and Instagram to treat female and male nipples equally, but such a change may be too radical for Silicon Valley.”
IFL Science: This Is Why Women Are Setting Their Gender To Male On Instagram. “The Instagram community guidelines state that nudity and inappropriate content is not allowed on the platform. ‘This includes photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding are allowed.’ However back in April, the Instagram algorithm changed to demote certain posts, even if they don’t technically break the rules set by the platform itself, HuffPost reports. “
BirminghamLive: Facebook bans tattooist’s nipple mastectomy photos. “A tattooist who offers life-like nipple reconstruction tattoos for women who have undergone mastectomies says photos of her work have been removed by Facebook. In a bid to spread the word as to what she can do to help others, Kerry [Irvine] has posted photographs of tattooed nipples on Facebook and Instagram. But she said some of the pictures were removed, her page has been suspended a number of times and she has been blocked out of her account for displaying sexual content.” Facebook has restored the account, but this is one more argument against Facebook policing its own content.
TimesLive (South Africa): Zulu maidens march against Google censorship of ‘bare breasts’ at annual reed dance. “Cultural activist Nomagugu Ngobese, who is in charge of the group of about 50 maidens, said that western societies, and Google, needed to respect how they showed pride in their culture.”
The Next Web: Twitch is okay with breastfeeding — but many viewers aren’t, and that’s a problem. “A Twitch streamer apparently started a revolution when she began breastfeeding her child on stream. When a clip of her doing so was deleted, she protested to Twitch. Site support eventually revealed the issue was that no one had, up to now, actually set policy on breastfeeding — but they did decree that it’s allowed.”
Techdirt: Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: Facebook Still Can’t Figure Out How To Deal With Naked Breasts. “Like a teenaged heterosexual boy, it appears that Facebook has no clue how to deal with naked female breasts. Going back over a decade, the quintessential example used to show the impossibility of coming up with clear, reasonable rules for content moderation at scale is Facebook and breasts.”
Fstoppers: Nipples Are Banned, but Animal Abuse and Brutal Violence Are OK: Instagram Is Broken. “As a photographer absorbed with curating my profile and admiring the work of some amazing artists, it’s not always apparent how much of Instagram is filled with truly terrible things. I’ve written before about how Instagram is a cesspit of populist content that is driven by clicks as opposed to quality. I’ve also complained at length about Instagram’s clear reluctance to combat freebooting on its platform, happy to see content stolen as long as users stay in the app, consuming its adverts. What I failed to realize was how much of Instagram is violent, graphic, and seemingly free of moderation. Around the world, thousands of 13-year-olds will be receiving new electronic devices this Christmas, many of them no doubt opening new Instagram accounts. Terrifyingly, those children, with all the parental controls in place, could in […]
WRAL: Harnett mom banned from Facebook over her child breastfeeding photo. “A Harnett County mother of five is speaking out after she was banned from Facebook three days ago for posting a picture of her breastfeeding her youngest child.”
EurekAlert: Deep learning can distinguish recalled-benign mammograms from malignant and negative images . “An artificial intelligence (AI) approach based on deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) could identify nuanced mammographic imaging features specific for recalled but benign (false-positive) mammograms and distinguish such mammograms from those identified as malignant or negative.”
The Plastic Surgery Foundation: NBIR Now Open Register Today. “The Plastic Surgery Foundation has collaborated with the FDA and breast implant device manufacturers to develop the National Breast Implant Registry (NBIR) to strengthen the post-marketing surveillance infrastructure for current and future breast implant devices. The NBIR is a prospective, non-interventional, population-based, outcomes and safety surveillance registry and quality improvement initiative. The NBIR collects clinical, procedural and outcomes data at the time of operation and any subsequent reoperations for all US patients receiving breast implants. Plastic Surgeons that enter data into the NBIR will be able to compare their practice performance and outcomes to the registry aggregate.”
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