Apart from a few specialist sites, such as Wyylde, Fetlife or BDSM.fr, social networks are rarely kind to sexuality. Censorship is in full swing on Facebook and Instagram, and to get around it, people resort to all sorts of stratagems, including the famous eggplant emoji.
But even this innocent little veggie stand-in for a pecker is no longer allowed. Indeed, Facebook has decided to censor the eggplant, peach and water drop emojis.
As the website XBiz points out, Facebook has quietly amended its terms of use. A few additional prohibitions are included, in a section titled “sexual solicitation.” These terms also apply to Instagram.
Facebook doesn’t like the eggplant emoji
It is now forbidden to post a sexual solicitation, including “emojis or series of emojis generally considered to be sexual or considered sexual in context.”
Edit: the eggplant emoji won’t disappear from Facebook entirely, however. Its use in a non-sexual context, for example to illustrate a ratatouille recipe, is still permitted.
Naked behind a fig leaf? Verboten!
In order to share sexual content without getting flagged by Mark Zuckerberg, many resorted to self-censorship. Once safely hidden behind a black rectangle, an emoji, an object, or a chaste pose, bums, genitals and breasts managed to make it through the gates of the prudish platform. At least, until recently.
Alas, from now on, no more evocative snapshots! Even when scrubbed of their explicit bits of flesh! Among the prohibited posts: “images of real people whose nudity is obscured by body parts, objects or digital obstruction.”
In other words, from the moment you are starkers, the very fact of being glimpsed is already far too racy. Even if it’s behind a big censorship block, a smiley or a pot of stew. There’s no way they’re going to let you show yourself like that, really! All that skin whose existence one can guess at — that’s obscene!
Measures targeting sex workers
These new community standards apply to what Facebook calls “sexual solicitation”. The social network’s definition of the term seems to cover quite a wide range, however.
Indeed, sexual encounters between adults and the offering or requesting of pornographic content are included, but so is “sexually explicit language that may lead to solicitation.”
Bonus: if one gets hard or if one gets wet, one is not allowed to notify all one’s contacts. However, this last paragraph is not new. A meagre consolation, one can still bandage a wound before going to the pool, then wet the plaster.
These measures seem to primarily target sex workers.
Many of them use mainstream social networks to practise their profession. More frequently visited than niche sites, they find clients there, or share content with their fans. They are regularly subject to censorship, even their accounts being banned, and it doesn’t seem like things are about to improve.
XBiz looked into the matter following a suggestion from BBC journalist Thomas Fabbri. He is interested in issues concerning sex workers and censorship on social media.
According to the Facebook Newsroom, where the social network publishes its press releases, the new terms of use came into effect on 31 July 2019. However, the version dated 7 September, which can be viewed on Internet Archive, doesn’t seem to mention these latest revisions.
