PHOTO FINISH

UPDATE: Facebook Does Turnaround, Approves Gay Image Used In Spanish Art Festival

This week, Towleroad reported that Facebook was censoring a photo of a gay kiss (right), taken by Spanish photographer Juan Hidalgo and being used to promote an LGBT art festival in Madrid.

The reason: it breached a decency code that barred images of a “political, sexual or other sensitive” nature.

On Friday, Andrew Noyes, the DC journalist turned FB’s manager of public policy communications, emailed Queerty to tell us that, “upon investigation, we concluded the advertisement does not violate our guidelines and was removed in error. The ad is now running and we apologize for the inconvenience.”

Given Facebook’s longstanding pro-gay policies, both internally and publicallyl, its highly unlikely the decision to ban the image was made at the corporate level.

But, as social media grows and mandates and algorithms replace human decision-making, we’re likely to see more content filtered “in error” across major platforms. Sometimes even in the interest of protecting LGBTs and other minorities.

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