triple j’s Ben And Liam in Facebook row over nude charity photo
triple j Breakfast hosts Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton closed out last week by doing their best to support an important Aussie charity by raising awareness for their, but no one expected their charitable efforts to result in a battle with Facebook over the service’s Advertising Policies.
As triple j notes, last week saw Ben and Liam speaking to Ben Brooksby of The Naked Farmer, whose Instagram account features tasteful nudes of Aussie farmers aims to tackle mental health amongst those in the agricultural industry – a topic very close to their hearts.
“Having grown up on a farm, I know lots of farmers who have and still are going through hard times,” says Ben. “It’s one of the reasons why The Naked Farmer Instagram page resonated with me and I think it is a great way to start a conversation about mental health.”
To help raise awareness for the cause, Ben and Liam decided to get their kit off and take a photo for The Naked Farmer, posing with some hay and a watering can. Needless to say, it didn’t really leave much to the imagination.
However, as news.com.au notes, the duo have since found themselves in the middle of a row with Facebook after a promoted post featuring the image was removed because it “doesn’t follow our Advertising Policies” and contains “excessive amounts of skin or suggestive content”.
“We recommend using content that focuses on your product or service in a non-sexual manner,” explained the message from the social media service, because of course all forms of nudity are inherently sexual.
While the photo remains active on the duo’s Instagram and Facebook as part of the aforementioned article on The Naked Farmer, the promoted post’s absence seems to indicate that Facebook seem to be hung up on the concept of showing a little bit of skin.
“I never thought such a big watering can could get you banned from Facebook,” Liam Stapleton explained to news.com.au. “I know I’ve got a bit of a sloppy rig but I didn’t think it was that offensive.”
“We thought we covered most of the offending bits but obviously not,” added Ben Harvey.
Neither Facebook or triple j have made any statement in regards to the ‘controversial’ image.
Check out Radiohead’s ‘Nude’:
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.