NEW YORK — Mainstream photo sharing board Pinterest is relaxing its ban on nudity, but porn’s still not allowed.
A spokesperson for the social networking site told the Financial Times it’s loosening its restrictions after receiving complaints from artists and photographers about having their work taken down.
Although Pinterest’s “Acceptable Use Policy” still states that it prohibits content that “is sexually explicit or contains nudity, partial nudity or pornography,” the site will reportedly embrace nudity as long as they consider it art.
The about-face comes at a time when most other social networks are clamping down on explicit content. YouTube recently yanked a video advocating sexual rights for the disabled as part of its “porn or art” policy that’s solely up to the discretion of its monitors who decide what gets pulled.
And Facebook, according to the TImes, made a commitment to its advertisers to review and improve its online moderation procedures after protests about ads facing offensive and misogynistic content.
But the change of heart by Pinterest may not be as new as it seems —particulalry where adult is concerned.
Last fall, Pinterest banned users from posting any photos from Sex.com — adult’s answer to Pinterest. The site’s operators at that time claimed Pinterest was afraid of the competition and that nudity was in fact allowed, albeit more erotic than hardcore. They also pointed out that Sex.com was becoming uniquely appealing to women.
Sex.com creative director Iain MacNeil told TechCrunch at that time, “Without contacting us, Pinterest banned all activity from Sex.com. Pinterest users can no longer pin any content from Sex.com nor can they view the site from older pins. We’ve unjustly been marked as spam. Our attempts to contact Pinterest have been fruitless. We want to know why they banned their adult community from seeing an alternative. Is it as simple as Pinterest is afraid of losing the adult content community despite the fact they do not respect users who use their site for adult content? Or is it that Pinterest does not believe a female audience for Sex.com is inappropriate?”