Press Release: Global Demonstration and Nurse-in to Protest Facebooks Repeated Censorship of Breastfeeding Images

February 3, 2012
This Monday (February 6), at 10:00, we will be staging a protest and nurse-in at Facebooks Amsterdam ofce on the Herengracht to call on the social networking company to immediately stop censoring images of breastfeeding. This will be part of a world-wide demonstration, taking place in at least sixteen cities in which Facebook has ofces. These nurse-ins and demonstrations were planned after Canadian breastfeeding activist Emma Kwasnica, who once again had her Facebook account suspended over posting a breastfeeding image, said she couldnt accept the companys apology until they truly x the problem. Kwasnica spoke with Facebook staff last month and said despite some accommodations, the bottom line is Facebook says they cannot prevent breastfeeding images and account suspensions from continuing. Earlier this week Facebook removed 257,000 supporters from the Hey Facebook! Breastfeeding is Not Obscene ofcial petition group, which has been active since 2007. In a statement after her meeting Kwasnica expressed her frustration: It is obvious to me now that Facebook really has lost control of their network, especially when their written policy clearly states they support the sharing of breastfeeding images, yet they say they cannot control the actions of their employees who keep removing breastfeeding images and who block accounts of the users who post them usually in error. This is exasperating to me. Yesterday Facebook led its long-anticipated IPO (initial public offering or stock market launch) valuing the company at about $100B. Facebooks advertising revenues last year topped $3B. Facebook offers advertisers the ability to carefully target audiences. The so-called inuential parent demographic is highly sought after. Some of Europes inuential parent demographic is planning to ex their muscles by attending this nurse-in and demonstration, demanding that Facebook stand by their own policy of not censoring breastfeeding images. Here is a list of Facebook ofces around the world. We are asking that if there is already an event scheduled at a FB ofce near you, please attend that event, as the more people there are, the more impact it will have. Those who live near a FB ofce where there is not an event scheduled yet and would like to help organize, are invited to contact one of the other event hosts.

Those who live too far from any of the FB ofces to attend in person, are invited to RSVP to the virtual event (http://www.facebook.com/events/223438821070846/) and change their Facebook prole picture to an image of a child being breastfed. Menlo Park, California, USA: 1601 Willow Road Amsterdam, Netherlands: Raadhuisstraat & Herengracht Atlanta, Georgia, USA Austin, Texas, USA Brussels, Belgium Buenos Aires, Argentina Chicago, Illinois, USA Dallas, Texas, USA Detroit, Michigan, USA Birmingham, Michigan Dublin, Ireland Hanover Quay Hamburg, Germany Hong Kong Hyderabad, India Milan, Italy London, UK 8 Carnaby Street, W1 Los Angeles, California, USA Madrid, Spain New York, New York, USA 340 Madison Ave Paris, France 28 Rue Hamelin Prineville, Oregan, USA 735 SW Connect Way, Prineville Sao Paulo, Brazil Seattle, Washington, USA Seoul, South Korea Singapore (Tuesday Feb. 7, 10 - 11.30 am), 158 Cecil Street #14-01 Stockholm, Sweden Sydney, Australia Tokyo, Japan Toronto, Canada Washington, DC, USA http://www.facebook.com/events/347380358607200/ https://www.facebook.com/events/179145422191934/ http://www.facebook.com/events/364543670229598/ http://www.facebook.com/events/325395364149745/

http://www.facebook.com/events/240777285997465/ http://www.facebook.com/events/240758396002016/ http://www.facebook.com/events/359931310688554

http://www.facebook.com/events/329431500425148/ http://www.facebook.com/events/335021279851560/ http://www.facebook.com/events/210590732364772/ http://www.facebook.com/events/331446130219840/ http://www.facebook.com/events/268101066588001/

http://www.facebook.com/events/334152533271925/ http://www.facebook.com/events/246770468734797

http://www.facebook.com/events/252761668126675/ http://www.facebook.com/events/219591241462244/