Provo woman protests Facebook's removal of breast-feeding photo

A Provo mom spent part of her Christmas vacation protesting outside Facebook's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters after the social networking site removed a picture of her nursing her infant daughter.

Heather Farley said she used as her profile photo a shot of her daughter Margaret, now 9 months old, nursing because "I thought the picture was sweet, and I liked the relationship that it showed. I want other moms to know that breast-feeding is not something that needs to be hidden."

Facebook instead removed the photo in early November and notified Farley that she had violated the policy prohibiting nudity.

She joined a Facebook group, now 85,000 members strong, called "Hey Facebook, breast-feeding is not obscene." They've launched an online petition asking Facebook to reconsider its policy.

In December, the online protesters, who call themselves "lactivists," planned a virtual "nurse in." As they were hammering out the details, Farley asked if they wanted her to do an actual protest outside the Palo Alto headquarters while she was in California for the holidays. They did, she said, and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. last Saturday, she and a shifting group of about 25 others — including 10 nursing mothers over the course of the event — protested the policy.

The company, she said, ignored the protest, just as it had ignored her earlier e-mails.

Attempts by the Deseret News to reach a Facebook spokesman Tuesday were unsuccessful, but spokesman Barry Schnitt was quoted by The Associated Press as saying the policy is meant to protect minors. He said most breast-feeding photos are allowed because they follow the site's rules. Photos that show nipples, for example, are removed.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com