Instagram has apologized after taking down a promotional poster for Pedro Almodóvar’s new film, Madres Paralelas, which features a close-up photograph of a lactating nipple. Several posts showing the poster, designed by graphic designer Javier Jaén, were removed from the platform on Monday before being restored.
In a statement, Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, said the posts had been deleted “for breaking our rules against nudity.” At the same time, the platform says it allows exceptions for works of art, including painting, sculpture, photography, and any other image with “clear artistic context,” as well as photos of people “actively breastfeeding.”
“We’ve therefore restored posts sharing the Almodóvar movie poster to Instagram, and we’re really sorry for any confusion caused,” Facebook said. The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) described the reversal as “either a promising shift for artists everywhere or a reinforcement of the inconsistency of the platform’s rules.”
“Instagram and its algorithms have long confused and dismayed artists whose work depicts the human body,” NCAC said in a statement. “Its algorithms frequently struggle to distinguish between photography and photorealistic painting.” Artists and creatives have repeatedly urged the company to revise its nudity policy, particularly its strict ban on images of female nipples, and #FreeTheNipple has become a rallying cry in the wider movement against Instagram censorship.
Artist Micol Hebron created the “Male Nipple Pasty,” a template image of a man’s nipple intended to help artists evade the censors, while also serving as a tongue-in-cheek critique of the platform’s gendered and arbitrary rules. In response to the latest controversy, Hebron altered the Madres Paralelas poster to add a male nipple and posted it to her Instagram, writing in the caption, “I fixed Javier Jaén’s poster for Almodovar’s film, so now it won’t get censored.”
