#Media Issues
Target:
Facebook
Region:
Belgium
Website:
www.facebook.com

Dear Facebook,

On March 9th, 2017 my Facebook profile was permanently shut down, because I had posted "Pornographic content". You told me I could object and explain by email what and why I had posted what I posted. I told you then, and I will tell you again (since you obviously did not read what I wrote, maybe I should use easier terms);

In December of 2014 I found out I am a carrier of the cancer causing gene BRCA1. This means I have a REALLY high risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. You can not understand what this is like, unless you are in the same position. This is why there are different PRIVATE groups on Facebook for woman like me. We are not just members of a group, we are a what we call a "Sisterhood". We help each other, lift each other up AND share pictures of ourselves during our process. Needless to say these pictures are of wounds, scars and many more medical shit, but also of our new nipples and tattoos.
These tattoos are not just for fun, they are the last step in a long process that is marked by pain, fear, hospitals and many many tears. A process in which your body stops being yours for too long.

When I got my new nipples on March 9, 2017 I cried happy tears. I could NOT wait to share pictures with my sisters. Many sisters who have already been there, and many sister for whom this is yet to come. To whom this is an image of hope.
Yet, as soon as I posted a picture in two of these PRIVATE groups, in the comment section of the original post, I was BLOCKED. And not just a 24 hour block, but permanently.

You can say "oh it's just facebook, make a new profile and you're back." Well yes, obviously. But that is not the point. You did not just shut down my private page. You shut down three business pages that had close to 1500 followers, you shut down my "friendship" with my sister, who passed away of ovarian cancer. You shut down every single message we ever sent to each other, every picture we shared and every moment we shared on our profiles. And most importantly, you shut down my birth given right to speak. You have censored me.

What stings most of all is the fact that according to yourself I "violated the guidelines of the Facebook community." The same guidelines that state you have to be thirteen years old to sign up. Do you know what happens when you are thirteen? You move from child to teenager. As a girl, you develop breasts, get your period and get wider hips. You are insecure about your body because it is changing so much. Yet this is the minimum age you are allowed into a online community that states that everything about the female body is absolutely disgusting. ESPECIALLY breasts. YUCK. But a movie that shows how a transgender woman is brutally beaten to death is just fine.

Yet if you search the internet, one of the first articles I found said as follows:

“We remove photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks,” the new policy reads. “We also restrict some images of female breasts if they include the nipple, but we always allow photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring.”
(Source: https://www.wired.com/2015/03/facebook-guidelines/)

I don't know what is happening here, but you need to either review your guidelines, or consequently do what you say. Change your narrow minded ideas of sexuality. BREASTS ARE NOT PER DEFINITION SEXUAL.

We, the undersigned, call on Facebook to review their guidelines in regard to post-mastectomy breast pictures AND get the blocked profiles back online.

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The STOP censoring post mastectomy pictures on Facebook petition to Facebook was written by Charlotte and is in the category Media Issues at GoPetition.