A widely mocked photo of the French president posing with a reported cocaine dealer and his middle finger-flipping cousin is purportedly being blocked on Facebook for violating the site’s rules against “nudity and sexual acts.”
French netizens are claiming that attempts to share the photograph – which was snapped during Emmanuel Macron’s PR-disastrous visit to the island nation of Saint Martin – are being thwarted by the social media giant.
One Frenchman testified on Twitter that he tried to post the photograph along with a snarky caption (“Funny way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Fifth Republic”) on Facebook – but that his internet masterpiece was prevented from going public. “Reason: Nudity! These people are crazy,” the tweet added.
Another Twitter user posted a screengrab of the Facebook notification warning that the photograph was sexual in nature and could not be published.
“What happened after the photo [was taken], Mr. Macron?” the censored Facebook user joked.
Macron visited the Caribbean island of Saint Martin at the end of September, perhaps hoping to get some feel-good photo ops. The island’s inhabitants, whose homes were devastated by hurricane Irma last year, took advantage of the opportunity to pose with the French leader – leading to the now-infamous “middle-finger affair.”
While carrying out his hand-shaking, baby-kissing politician duties, Macron agreed to a photo with the two young men – one of them shirtless, with his pants dangling around his legs and a middle finger prominently displayed for the camera. According to French media reports, this gentleman is the cousin of a local cocaine dealer – who also posed with Macron in the legendary photo.
Also on rt.com Gangster who posed with Macron in ‘middle finger’ pic was linked to cocaine gang leader – reportWhile the censorship is obviously convenient for Macron, it’s possible that the culprit is not a scheming Facebook employee but instead the dreaded algorithm.
In a similar case, the photograph of a starving Yemeni girl was being automatically blocked on the site because it allegedly violated Facebook’s policy against child nudity. The site later reversed its decision, acknowledging that the shocking photograph, which accompanied a New York Times article about the humanitarian disaster in Yemen, was “an important image of global significance.”
Like this story? Share it with a friend!