Meta is fighting with itself over how Instagram should handle nipple censorship going forward

• Meta's Oversight Board found its adult nudity policy "convoluted" and effectively "unworkable."
• Describing "extensive and convoluted" rules for female nipples, advisors recommended Meta overhaul its policy.

Meta's Oversight Board has recommended sweeping changes to a woefully muddled adult nudity policy, taking issue with the policy's lack of clarity as well as its binary view of gender.

The board — an advisory group of journalists, academics, and lawyers funded by Meta but operating independently — has asked the tech giant to update its policy with "clear criteria that respect international human rights standards."

The recommendation came alongside the board's decision to overturn Meta's previous decision to remove two posts of a topless transgender and non-binary couple from Instagram in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Shared to a US couple's account, the images showed them "bare-chested with the nipples covered," and included mention of transgender healthcare and top surgery, which they were fundraising for, in the caption, according to the board's decision.

Flagged by Instagram users and AI moderation, the posts were reviewed and subsequently removed for violating its Sexual Solicitation Community Standard, "seemingly because they contain breasts and a link to a fundraising page." The couple then appealed to Meta and then the Oversight Board.

Meta employs both human moderators and AI moderation to monitor posts. But AI is particularly inept at reading an image's context.

And, according to the board, Meta's current policy is confusing and impractical for "moderating content at scale." For instance, the guidance Meta gives its moderators about removing posts for violating its sexual solicitation policy is "far broader" than what it shares publicly. The discrepancy leads to confusion among its users and moderators (who then are liable to incorrectly remove posts) and proves to be "unworkable" in practice.

The board found that Meta's policy has particularly "extensive and confusing" rules for female nipples — especially as applied to non-binary and transgender users — and is based on "a binary view of gender." Images of female nipples are prohibited unless shown in specific scenarios, such as breastfeeding or childbirth — a distinction criticized for the sexualization of female breasts.

Currently, exceptions to the policy include protests and medical contexts such as top surgery and breast cancer awareness. But, the related posts made by the transgender and non-binary couple were reported by users as well as its automated moderation system, and appear to have been removed after a human review. The content was reportedly technically free of nipples, as well as connected to a medical procedure protected by policy exceptions, but it was still removed.

Beyond user or moderator confusion, it's conceivable that the holes in Meta's community guidelines could be exploited by people who disagree or dislike a post, a loophole that could disproportionately impact marginalized users.

"We welcome the board's decision in this case," a spokesperson for Meta told The Post, adding that the company had already reinstated the content prior to the board's decision. It's still unclear how the company feels about the board's requested overhaul of its community guidelines. Meta did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

In other words, while the board's recommendation could, in theory, help #freethenipple on Instagram and Facebook, it's still as unclear how or if Meta will tackle large-scale moderation and a clear, discrimination-free policy.

Meta says it will publicly respond to the Oversight Board's decision within 60 days.