Facebook Censorship: Penalizing the Innocent and Still Missing the Harmful?

Once again Ancient Origins has been blocked by Facebook for posting content deemed not fit for general consumption. This is becoming an almost monthly occurrence, with the site being put on hold for the best part of a month each time. In fact, we are not even sure the self-censored image above will make it past the Facebook automated censorship system, but these days it seems we haven’t got much to lose. [Note: Yes, the image above did get us further restrictions]

Here are the latest problem images. Last month, Ancient Origins was put on hold for showing images from an Egyptian papyrus of the process of circumcision in Egypt – warning images of total nudity coming up…

Papyrus showing ancient Egyptian men undergoing circumcision. (archivohistoria/CC BY 4.0)

Even after appeal (where one would guess a human might be involved) this image does not pass Facebook community’s nudity or sexual activity rules:

So have Facebook got it right, and Ancient Origins have it wrong? Maybe we need to change our own moderation standards.

In the last week, the problem has been an article regarding a bog body which has the image below, flagged as breaking the community’s rules on violence. Warning, potentially disturbing image ahead.