Facebook Shuts Down Support Group For Breastfeeding Moms

I just heard about The Leaky B@@b fan page being shut down on facebook and I thought it was time to do my part to help gather the masses to do something about it. Did you know that I also had my facebook page shut down? Last summer – for nearly two whole weeks. They shut down my personal page and my two business pages (all three were linked – so once one gets taken down – they all do). I have no idea what the “offense” was – but assumed it was something related to the fact that I’d just had my grand opening of my retail boutique and was doing a lot of posting about it. I also have lots of info about breasts and breastfeeding – so who knows what it was actually related to. I will never know why they shut me down. I filled out the required paperwork and emailed them daily for two weeks until I finally got my pages put back up.

Ever since that happened to me, I have been too “nervous” to do anything “out-of-line” for fear of being shut down again. So I am very careful about what I post and what I say – careful not to upset the “powers that be at facebook” – not because I think anything I do or say is violating their policies – but because I know that they shut down breastfeeding supporters for very INVALID reasons. I have worked hard to grow my business and part of that includes my social networking presence. I have set up my facebook pages and connected with moms and provide support for them. So you can understand that I don’t want to get shut down again. Those two weeks where I was off-line were very difficult for me. I never knew WHY my pages were taken down – so didn’t know how to prevent it from happening in the future. And you can’t just “call someone up to “discuss it” with facebook – you have to go through all of their “email channels” – where no one actually responds to you. It is extremely frustrating.

This is the 3rd or 4th time lately that I have heard about breastfeeding support groups being shut down on facebook – so I decided to publish excerpts from The Leaky B@@b press release about the subject. If you are a breastfeeding supporter – please contact facebook and respectfully ask that breastfeeding support groups be treated with respect and be exempt from the “rules” facebook has about posting words like “breast” or showing photos that might have a little breast exposed in them. These sites provide invaluable resources to moms. I, for one, want all of them to be around – mine included.

Here are exerpts from the Leaky B@@b’s press release. You can read the entire release here.

The Leaky Boob, a breastfeeding support site for parents, is asking Facebook to reconsider their obscenity and vulgarity position on the word “breast” after having “The Leaky B@@b” fan page removed from Facebook for obscenity. “There is nothing obscene or vulgar about breastfeeding,” said Jessica Martin-Weber, founder and editor of The Leaky Boob. “With all the positive attention for breast cancer awareness and prevention, and the vital importance of breastfeeding, it seems staggering to me that I’m asking Facebook to do this in 2011.”

and more…

Martin-Weber says she understands and approves of Facebook’s stance on obscene content, and she’s fully in support of that position. “I have children and they will use Facebook when they are old enough. I don’t want to see pornographic content when I’m using it now,” she explains. “But it’s time for Facebook to give sites that mention the word “breast” for health and wellness reasons a way to be exempt from the obscenity filter.”

and…

Martin-Weber is asking supporters to respectfully and clearly let Facebook know how they feel, either by posting on Mark Zuckerburg’s fan page, blogging and posting about the issue, emailing Facebook or asking their local media to cover the issue. “Facebook has done this many times in the past, and they have reinstated pages at times. This isn’t over.”


Have you been sensored by facebook? What did you do? Please provide support to The Leaky B@@b by helping her to get the word out – write a blog post, send a note to facebook CEO Mark Zuerkburg and continue to support breastfeeding moms in any way that you can!

12 comments to Facebook Shuts Down Support Group For Breastfeeding Moms

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