Techdirt's think tank, the Copia Institute, is working with the Trust & Safety Professional Association and its sister organization, the Trust & Safety Foundation, to produce an ongoing series of case studies about content moderation decisions. These case studies are presented in a neutral fashion, not aiming to criticize or applaud any particular decision, but to highlight the many different challenges that content moderators face and the tradeoffs they result in. Find more case studies here on Techdirt and on the TSF website.

Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook Removes A Picture Of A Famous Danish Mermaid Statue (2016)

from the the-nudity-issue dept

Summary: For over a century, Edvard Eriksen’s bronze statue of The Little Mermaid becoming human has been installed on a rock along the water in Copenhagen, Denmark. The statue was designed to represent the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, and has become a tourist attraction and landmark.


Image used here under CC BY-SA 3.0 License, taken by Avda-Berlin.

In 2016, Danish politician Mette Gjerskov used Facebook to post a link to her own blog post on the TV2 website, which included an image of the statue. Facebook automatically displayed the image with the link, leading the company to then take down the link. The explanation provided by Facebook was that the image had "too much bare skin or sexual undertones."

Gjerskov highlighted the absurdity of the situation, calling it “ridiculous” that the image caused Facebook’s moderators to block the link. Many people appeared to agree, and as the story began to get more attention, Facebook quickly backtracked and admitted the removal was in error. It restored the link.

Many of the news reports on the story concluded with Facebook’s reversal, but the image actually did not return to Facebook. Due to copyright law in Denmark, the statue is still considered to be covered by copyright (until 2029, 70 years after Eriksen’s death), and his estate has been fairly aggressive in demanding licensing and royalty payments. Because of that, TV2, which hosted Gjerskov’s blog, chose to remove the image that caused the takedown in the first place -- not to appease Facebook’s moderation, but to avoid a copyright issue from the Erikson estate, even though a copyright on the statue itself is different from copyright on images of the statue.

Decisions to be made by Facebook:

  • How do you write rules regarding nudity that take into account art or cultural landmarks?

  • Is taking down a link due to images that are automatically embedded via the OpenGraph feature the best solution? Would it make sense to simply remove that image while leaving the link, or have a different image show?

Questions and policy implications to consider:
  • The line between artistic works that depict nudity and works that violate a nudity policy or include “sexual overtones” is often a very subjective judgment call. How can companies craft rules that are enforced consistently across a diverse set of moderators, often with different cultural backgrounds and experiences?

  • A strict policy against nudity is likely to capture many artistic situations. Is that a reasonable trade-off for websites that seek to be family friendly?

  • How can copyright intersect with other types of challenges regarding content moderation?

Resolution: As noted in the case study, the link was restored after Facebook admitted error, but the image was taken off the website (and, thus, the link on Facebook) due to copyright concerns from TV2. Facebook’s policies already allow many forms of artistic nudity, but mistaken removals for nudity still feel common, given the huge scale of review decisions made on a daily basis. The statue has continued to be a cultural landmark in Denmark, and is often used for making political statements, leading to more photographs being shared of it. Just recently it was vandalized to promote democracy in Hong Kong and to protest racism.

Originally posted to the Trust & Safety Foundation website

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Filed Under: content moderation, copyright, denmark, evard eriksen, mette gjerskov, the little mermaid
Companies: facebook


Reader Comments

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  1. icon
    Samuel Abram (profile), 26 Mar 2021 @ 4:57pm

    Artistic Nudity versus pornography.

    I realize Content Moderation at Scale is Impossible™, and that's why there are these moderation snafus listed. However, I just find it interesting that Nintendo has the fully nude renaissance masterpieces (as well as their fun counterfeits) in their Animal Crossing: New Horizons game and Nintendo, as you know, is a family-friendly company, so I think they could clearly see that The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli and David by Michelangelo are nude in an artistic fashion and not in a pornographic one.

    That being said, if David were fucking Botticelli's Venus doggystyle, then we'd know what's up. Considering rule 34, it's probably on the internet.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    icon
    Graham J (profile), 26 Mar 2021 @ 5:37pm

    hehe

    boobs

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    ECA (profile), 26 Mar 2021 @ 6:15pm

    Waiting for it.

    Ever hear how the Statues in the Vatican lost all their dicks?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Samuel Abram (profile), 26 Mar 2021 @ 6:19pm

    Re: hehe

    Shut up, Beavis.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Rocky, 26 Mar 2021 @ 6:37pm

    Re: Waiting for it.

    If I remember correctly, it was some pope during 1600th century that started it.

    On a related note, there's an art museum in Copenhagen (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek) that has an exhibit of noses that broke off from statues.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Bobvious, 27 Mar 2021 @ 5:12am

    Re: Re: Waiting for it.

    And another museum dedicated to Advertising that makes you sick. it's called the Ad Nauseum

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2021 @ 8:10am

    You'd think "it's a statue" would be a dead giveaway...apparently not.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Peter, 27 Mar 2021 @ 12:09pm

    To be fair to Facebook

    Tits are tits.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2021 @ 4:05pm

    Re: Re: Waiting for it.

    i am really interested in this 1600th century thing. is there any more detail about that bit? ;)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    Samuel Abram (profile), 27 Mar 2021 @ 4:21pm

    Re: Re: Re: Waiting for it.

    I'm wondering if it's anything like 17 Corinthians in Constantine.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Mar 2021 @ 5:18pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Waiting for it.

    Was hoping it was more like Duck Dodgers, but interested regardless of outcome.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. icon
    Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 30 Mar 2021 @ 11:42am

    Flem Comics

    (Sorry it's a link to the Internet Archive, but the images aren't working on Keenspace for this comic. Or Keenspot, or whatever they're calling it now.)

    link to this | view in thread ]


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