A widely mocked photo of the French president posing with a reported cocaine dealer and his middle finger-flipping cousin is purportedly being blocked on Facebook for violating the site’s rules against “nudity and sexual acts.”
French netizens are claiming that attempts to share the photograph – which was snapped during Emmanuel Macron’s PR-disastrous visit to the island nation of Saint Martin – are being thwarted by the social media giant.
One Frenchman testified on Twitter that he tried to post the photograph along with a snarky caption (“Funny way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Fifth Republic”) on Facebook – but that his internet masterpiece was prevented from going public. “Reason: Nudity! These people are crazy,” the tweet added.
Figurez vous que ma publication du 30 septembre sur #Macron avec cette photographie a été censurée par #Facebook .
Mon commentaire était le suivant : « Drôle de façon de fêter le 60 ème anniversaire de la Ve République ».
Motif : nudité ! Ces gens sont fous. pic.twitter.com/tbjrjTZTTT— Vincent G. RICHARD (@V_G_Richard) November 27, 2018
Another Twitter user posted a screengrab of the Facebook notification warning that the photograph was sexual in nature and could not be published.
Bonjour @EmmanuelMacron. Je viens de recevoir un avertissement de #Facebook pour la publication de votre photo avec ces 2 personnes. Ils évoquent de la « nudité » de votre part & des « actes sexuels » avec ces gentils monsieurs. Que s’est-il passé après la photo M. #Macron ? 🤭🔞 pic.twitter.com/wOkf5cmGRD
— Julien Ibos (@julienibos) November 27, 2018
“What happened after the photo [was taken], Mr. Macron?” the censored Facebook user joked.
Macron visited the Caribbean island of Saint Martin at the end of September, perhaps hoping to get some feel-good photo ops. The island’s inhabitants, whose homes were devastated by hurricane Irma last year, took advantage of the opportunity to pose with the French leader – leading to the now-infamous “middle-finger affair.”
While carrying out his hand-shaking, baby-kissing politician duties, Macron agreed to a photo with the two young men – one of them shirtless, with his pants dangling around his legs and a middle finger prominently displayed for the camera. According to French media reports, this gentleman is the cousin of a local cocaine dealer – who also posed with Macron in the legendary photo.
While the censorship is obviously convenient for Macron, it’s possible that the culprit is not a scheming Facebook employee but instead the dreaded algorithm.
In a similar case, the photograph of a starving Yemeni girl was being automatically blocked on the site because it allegedly violated Facebook’s policy against child nudity. The site later reversed its decision, acknowledging that the shocking photograph, which accompanied a New York Times article about the humanitarian disaster in Yemen, was “an important image of global significance.”
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