Facebook has certainly had its fair share of photo-banning controversies in the last year or so, considering the outrage over their decisions to censor photos of mothers breastfeeding, the last family pictures of a dying baby, professional shots of a woman's torso after a mastectomy, and countless more questionable decisions regarding their terms of use. Sometimes it's hard to understand why Facebook would decide a particular photo is unacceptable -- but in the case of a recently-banned image of a woman lounging in a bathtub, it's as plain to see as the outrageous naked knockers on her chest.

However, there's more than initially meets the eye in this seemingly topless photo. It was posted by the web magazine Theories of the Deep Understanding of Things in order to test Facebook's photo moderation skills, and it actually contains no nipples whatsoever.

If you take a closer look at the photograph, what appears to be a big pair of (somewhat startlingly lopsided) hooters are actually the woman's elbows:


The magazine posted the image in order to see if it would trigger Facebook's content policies, and sure enough, it was removed in short order:

So, here's last night’s FB alertness test results: FB moderators can't tell an elbow from a dangerous, filthy, uncanny and violent female breast. No questions were asked and the post is down. Imagine our surprise.

Really, I'm not sure this groundbreaking experiment proves anything other than the fact that Facebook has to deal with bazillions of photos on a daily basis and if one of them appears to show a lady's bodacious whomperjawed tatas, it shouldn't surprise anyone if it gets deleted. Setting aside the ethical quandary of what constitutes an offensive image, I'm not particularly shocked that Facebook likely relies on image-scanning software and maybe a cursory glance or two from an overworked human in order to enforce their policies.

However, I AM intrigued by the idea of deliberately provoking Facebook censorship with misleading images in order to document the results. I mean, if Elbow Nipples got flagged, why hasn't Penis Puppy been reported?


You sicko, it's just a DOG!

Are you surprised this woman's photo was banned? Do you think images of breasts shouldn't be allowed on Facebook?

Image via Facebook