Facebook reverses ban on Led Zeppelin nude children album artwork

Facebook has again backtracked on banning an image for violating its nudity rules following an angry backlash. This time it was Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy album cover that was censored.

The social media network said it had received complaints about a post by the Ultimate Classic Rock (UCR) website featuring the famous artwork that shows naked children climbing over the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. It ordered UCR to remove the image, saying, “there are rules regarding nudity and solicitation that we have to follow.”

UCR said it had used that image for over 30 Facebook posts in the past and had never had an issue with it. The ‘Led Zeppelin Ultimate Fan’ page said that when it shared a UCR article about the ban, it was deleted by Facebook. The page admin reportedly received a three-day ban for sharing another article about the ban, as did others who shared articles and a petition to have the ban overturned, UCR reports.

Facebook overturned the ban on Thursday, explaining that while it doesn’t allow nude images of children, it recognized that “this is a culturally significant image.” It said it would reinstate any removed posts “in the coming days,” and would adjust its review process so other posts featuring the 1973 album cover won’t get removed.

Facebook has been criticized for its system of banning nude images in the past. In 2016, it came under fire for banning the iconic ‘Napalm Girl’ photograph featuring a naked Vietnamese child running from a US napalm attack during the Vietnam war.

It also faced an angry backlash when it banned users sharing an article about Yemen as it featured a naked, starving Yemeni child in 2018.

The Led Zeppelin cover was designed by Aubrey Powell of the Hipgnosis collective, which created a number of significant rock album covers in the 1970s, including the iconic artwork for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album.

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