File photo - Tess Holliday poses for a photo in New York. (Tory Rust/Refinery29 via AP)
Facebook has apologized for telling a feminist group promoting a body positivity event that their photo of a plus-size model in a bikini showed "body parts in an undesirable manner"—and suggesting they use an image of someone "running or riding a bike." Australian group Cherchez la Femme says it received a notification from Facebook about an event page for its "Feminism and Fat" discussion featuring a photo of model Tess Holliday, the Guardian reports.
They were told the ad violated Facebook's "health and fitness policy" and that ads "may not depict a state of health or body weight as being perfect or extremely undesirable. Ads like these are not allowed since they make viewers feel bad about themselves." The event's Jessamy Gleeson tells the BBC that she was infuriated by the move.
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"I can see that they were attempting to try to tackle eating disorders—that makes sense—but at some point you have to consider that women of different weights exist on Facebook." A Facebook spokesperson tells Cosmopolitan that banning the ad was a mistake.
"Our team processes millions of advertising images each week, and in some instances we incorrectly prohibit ads," the spokesperson says. "This image does not violate our ad policies." (Google has banned "deceptive" ads for payday loans.)
This article originally appeared on Newser: Facebook Sorry for Calling Plus-Size Photo 'Undesirable'
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