--- title: Facebook Lifts Ban on Breastfeeding Nipple Pictures description: The social media site told Huffington Post the ban was quietly lifted about two weeks ago canonical: https://time.com/2869849/facebook-breastfeeding-nipples/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-13T12:47:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:02:30.991Z og:title: Facebook Lifts Ban on Breastfeeding Nipple Pictures og:description: The social media site told Huffington Post the ban was quietly lifted about two weeks ago og:url: https://time.com/2869849/facebook-breastfeeding-nipples/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Facebook Lifts Ban on Breastfeeding Nipple Pictures twitter:description: The social media site told Huffington Post the ban was quietly lifted about two weeks ago twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Facebook Lifts Ban on Exposed Nipples in Breastfeeding Pictures by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 13, 2014 12:47 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 13, 2014 12:47 PM UTC It appears Facebook has withdrawn its ban on female nipples in photos of breastfeeding mothers. Facebook has drawn heat from feminists for considering images of topless women as violations of their policies against nudity and obscenity —even when the photographs depict breastfeeding mothers. Feminist writer Soraya Chemaly brought attention to the policy change on [The Huffington Post](http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/06/11/facebook-breastfeeding-photo-ban-lifted-freethenipple-campaign-pictures%5Fn%5F5484788.html), noting that the social media company had quietly changed its policy on obscene content in regard to breastfeeding mothers. Images that include the exposed nipples of breastfeeding can now be posted on the site without the risk of removal. “The female nipple ban no longer exists for breastfeeding mothers, which should make many people who have been pushing the company to address a nudity double standard at least partially happy,” Chemaly wrote on Monday. The ban drew the attention of women last year who took the site to task over the policy, which they said is an example of gender-based discrimination. A [campaign](http://www.womenactionmedia.org/fbagreement/) led by Chemaly called on Facebook to combat both hate-speech and “obscenity” double standards. It garnered over 60,000 tweets, 5000 emails, and a bundle of disgruntled advertisers, and led [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-safety/controversial-harmful-and-hateful-speech-on-facebook/574430655911054) to respond with an explanation of its policy. A year later, the breastfeeding ban has been lifted, though bans on artistic displays of female nipples remain in place. Facebook has not yet acknowledged that the ban was lifted for breastfeeding women. \[[_Huffington Post_](http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/06/11/facebook-breastfeeding-photo-ban-lifted-freethenipple-campaign-pictures%5Fn%5F5484788.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2869849/facebook-breastfeeding-nipples/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2869849/facebook-breastfeeding-nipples/"},"headline":"Facebook Lifts Ban on Exposed Nipples in Breastfeeding Pictures","datePublished":"2014-06-13T12:47:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:30.991Z","description":"The social media site said the ban was quietly lifted about two weeks ago. It does not apply to other images of female nipples","url":"https://time.com/2869849/facebook-breastfeeding-nipples/","keywords":["Living","Tech","women","Internet","Family","facebook","breastfeeding"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2869849/facebook-breastfeeding-nipples/","name":"Facebook Lifts Ban on Exposed Nipples in Breastfeeding Pictures"}}]}] ```