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Facebook suspends Indonesian user for posting historical photos featuring topless women
Jakarta Post - February 27, 2016
Facebook user, 23-year-old Dea Basuri, compiled a series of photos she found on the internet in an album on her Facebook page titled "The Culture of Real Indonesian Women", showing how these women dressed within their cultures and tribes in the past.
Some of the photos, which were mostly in black and white, depicted Indonesian women in traditional attire that only covered their bodies from the waist down, leaving their breasts exposed.
"I saw the historical photos that I have collected so far as a valuable aspect of Indonesian history." Dea wrote in her Twitter account on Wednesday.
She posted the photo series as a response to the broadcast of the Puteri Indonesia 2016 beauty pageant last weekend, in which the television channel decided to blur the legs and cleavage of contestants wearing traditional Indonesia kebaya. A level of censorship she deemed unnecessary.
The album went viral within 24 hours with almost 3000 shares on Facebook. However, Dea received a notification from Facebook on Tuesday night at around 7 p.m. saying that her account had been suspended for not following Facebook community standards.
"How is it considered sexually explicit to upload pictures of Indonesian women in the past where the picture was taken within daily life?" Dea wrote in her Twitter on Wednesday.
The photos were not intended to be pornographic, obscene, or controversial as they were aspects of history that could help society to more deeply contemplate the sexualization of women's bodies, Dea wrote, adding that she just wanted to share and educate the public about the issue.
She questioned why it was okay for celebrities and men expose an excessive amount of skin, such as men who took bare-chested selfies, but when it came to historical photos of women in their traditional clothes, it couldn't be tolerated.
"If Facebook can be a supporter towards the rights of LGBTQ individuals, then I believe it can be a supporter of women's rights," Dea wrote questioning Facebook's known stance of equality in the work environment.
Social media users have thrown their support behind Dea by sharing her Twitter posts as well as signing Dea's online petition appealing to the Facebook CEO titled "Dear Mark Zuckerberg: Please stand up for gender equality and the preservation of history".
Dea sent an appeal to Facebook asking the social-networking giant to reactivate her account at 12 a.m. on Wednesday, while in return she said she would also take down the album and make it unavailable to the public. However, Facebook has not yet responded to her appeal. (rin)(+)
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