Today, January 9, 2025, the Oversight Board selected a case bundle regarding four posts which include images and videos posted to Instagram and Facebook depicting indigenous women with their breasts uncovered in non-sexual contexts.
Two cases were appealed to the Board by Instagram users. The first case concerns an image posted to Instagram featuring two bare-breasted women in the traditional attire of the Himba people of Namibia, with a caption that references the Himba. The second case concerns a short video posted to Instagram that shows a Himba man dancing bare-chested, with bare-breasted women in traditional attire in the background. The caption contains English, French and Arabic words as well as Himba, dance, culture and travel hashtags.
The content in the first and second cases were removed by Meta for violating our Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity policy, as laid out in the Facebook Community Standards and Instagram Community Guidelines. Under our Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity policy, Meta prohibits: “Imagery, and digital imagery, of adult nudity” in a variety of contexts, including, “uncovered female nipples, except in a breastfeeding, mastectomy, medical, health, or act of protest context.” Meta determined these two pieces of content did not qualify for a newsworthiness allowance.
The remaining cases were referred to the Board by Meta. The third case deals with an image posted to Instagram by the official account of a political party in Brazil. The image includes indigenous women in traditional Yanomami clothing with their breasts uncovered. Portuguese text on the image praises government efforts to reduce fires and combat illegal mining on Yanomami indigenous lands. The caption, also in Portuguese, emphasizes the importance of the government protecting indigenous land rights.
The fourth case deals with an image posted to Facebook by a German newspaper. The image shows a bare-breasted indigenous woman holding a child. The caption, written in German, describes a visit by a U.S. journalist to a Mayan village in Mexico and her perspective as a mother on local parenting, also providing a link to an article. The indigenous woman in the image does not appear to be Mayan. The image seems to belong to a photo agency, appearing in online collections of an indigenous Ethiopian group.
Meta determined that the content in both of these cases violated our Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity policy, but decided that the content should be left up for the following reasons:
For the third case, Meta applied the newsworthy allowance, because while the content is violating, Meta noted the post was from a political party discussing political issues and that the public interest value outweighed the risk of harm.
For the fourth case, Meta applied the spirit of the policy allowance because as the user is a news outlet, Meta believed the image of the indigenous woman was taken with consent and on the understanding it would be distributed.
We will implement the Board’s decision once it has finished deliberating, and will update this post accordingly. Please see the Board’s website for the decision when they issue it.
We welcome the Oversight Board's decision today, June 5, 2025, on this case bundle. The Board overturned Meta's decision to remove the content in the first two cases. The Board upheld Meta’s decision to leave up the content in the third case. Finally, the Board overturned Meta’s decision to leave up the content in the fourth case.
Meta will comply with the Board's decisions and reinstate the content in the first two cases and remove the content in the fourth case within 7 days.
When it is technically and operationally possible to do so, we will also take action on content that is identical and in the same context as these cases. For more information, please see our Newsroom post about how we implement the Board's decisions.
After conducting a review of the recommendation provided by the Board, we will update this post with initial responses to that recommendation.
Recommendations
Recommendation 1 (Assessing Feasibility)
To better protect expression, while respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and their members, Meta should make public its Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity policy exception allowing content depicting bare-chested indigenous women in some circumstances. This exception should be applied on escalation only, and should allow such nudity where it reflects socially accepted custom and belief, and does not misrepresent these practices.
The Board will consider this recommendation implemented when Meta updates the public-facing Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity Community Standard with the policy exception.
Commitment Statement: We will explore updates to our Community Standards for Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity to provide more details about this allowance.
Considerations: As the Board notes in its decision, for indigenous nudity, we maintain internal guidelines for determining whether or not content depicting bare-chested indigenous women should be allowed upon escalation. These guidelines include considering local regional context, alignment from internal teams about safety considerations, and additional signals that the nudity is shared in a cultural context. Given the level of nuance involved in each case, particularly as sensitivities vary across different cultures, we will consider how we may update our Community Standards to further clarify our escalation and context-specific policy approach to allow content of bare-chested indigenous women in specific circumstances.