Nude art trap for Facebook: Network sorry for auto-ban of Chagall exhibition ad

Facebook’s overeager nudity filter has flopped again when it banned an advertising of an exhibition of paintings by Marc Chagall in Germany’s Münster.

The Pablo Picasso museum produced a two-minute clip to promote the exhibition of works by the world-famous Russian-French artist. It features some of the paintings and commentary by Professor Markus Muller, the museum’s director.

But when they tried to use Facebook’s paid advertising tools, the social media giant rejected the video, reported the local newspaper Münstersche Zeitung. Apparently the automatic algorithm screening ads was not happy with some of the paintings, like the “Nude over Vitebsk”, a 1933 surrealist work which features a woman’s naked backside.

After the German media reported about the absurd ban, Facebook overturned the decision and offered the museum its apology, the newspaper said.

Facebook’s modesty policies had clashed with the world of art before. This summer several museum in Belgium produced an ad mocking the network’s adversity to nudity for being incompatible with great works of Flemish painters such as Rubens, Bruegel, and Van Eyck. And in March the tech giant apologized for censoring an ad featuring a bare-breasted woman from Eugene Delacroix’s legendary French Revolution painting.

The network also came under fire in 2016 in Norway for censoring historically important images featuring nudity, like the iconic photo of a naked Vietnam girl after napalm bombing of her village. While initially Facebook tried to insist that the photo had no place on its platform, it made a U-turn after public outcry.

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