Facebook faces wrath of mothers who say their breasts are being banned

TAMPA - It's as natural as a nap, but babies and mothers at mealtime have a way of sparking conflict in public places.  When a Target employee in Texas asked a nursing mother to move into a changing room, it sparked a breast feeding backlash.

Target responded by training all their employees to accept, even encourage breast feeding anywhere in the store.  

This week, nursing mothers are protesting Facebook offices around the world for deleting pictures of babies at the breast.

"In our country we sexualize breasts rather than seeing them for what their real purpose is.  Yes they can be used for sexual purposes, but their primary purpose is to feed our young," said Catherine Hammer of the La Leche League of Tampa.

Hammer says women should be encouraged to breast feed and society needs to accept that there is nothing lewd about it.

Websites are full of photos that women claim were deleted by Facebook.  Some members even claim their accounts were suspended.

"These photos that they deleted are not sexual. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing," said Hammer.

Facebook points out that users flag photos as inappropriate or offensive.  Then Facebook employees decide what to do about it.    Their posted policy on the matter says:

"The vast majority of these photos are compliant with our policies, and we will not take action on them.  Photos that show a fully exposed breast where the child is not actively engaged in nursing do violate Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities."

Catherine Hammers believes that policy is ambiguous at best.

If there's a child just about to nurse?  Is that allowed? It just think it's ridiculous they spend their time with us.

Facebook admits that some pictures were taken down unfairly, and they promise to be more careful in the future.