Court: Facebook should not have banned nude painting
The French legal system just handed Facebook a nude awakening.
On Friday, a French appeals court ruled Facebook can indeed be sued over its decision to remove the account of a user who posted a picture of Gustave Courbet’s 1866 L'Origine du monde (The Origin of the World). The masterpiece, which hangs in Paris’s Musée d'Orsay, depicts female genitalia.
According to the museum’s website, Courbet “regularly painted female nudes, sometimes in a frankly libertine vein. But in The Origin of the World he went to lengths of daring and frankness which gave his painting its peculiar fascination.”
Facebook has argued in the past that such a lawsuit could only be heard in California, where Facebook is headquartered.
The company emailed the following statement to USA TODAY: "This case dates back more than five years and Facebook has evolved considerably since then. While we are disappointed by today's ruling on jurisdiction, we remain confident that the court will find the underlying case itself to be without merit."
The controversy began when a 57 year-old Parisian teacher and art lover had his account suspended by Facebook after posting the photo. The teacher, Frédéric Durand-Baissas, is seeking 20,000 euros (nearly $22,500) in damages, and reportedly wants his account reinstated.
The teacher’s lawyer, Stephane Cottineau, told the Associated Press: "This is a great satisfaction and a great victory after five years of legal action...On one hand, Facebook shows a total permissiveness regarding violence and ideas conveyed on the social network. And on the other hand, (it) shows an extreme prudishness regarding the body and nudity."
Given the following line from Facebook's current community standards, it appears Courbet's painting would now be permitted. "We also allow photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures."
Contributing: The Associated Press.
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