Photo by Austin Young
 
Dangerous Minds pal Ann Magnuson was rather unceremoniously booted from Facebook this morning? If Facebook wants to look seriously unhip, picking on someone as awesomely cool as Ann Magnuson would seem to be the right way to go about it. But I’ll let Ann explain:

My photographer friend Austin Young called me today to ask if I was mad at him. Mad? Yeah, because he’d been blocked from my Facebook profile. Then my husband FWD’d me a message from a mutual FB friend that my page had been taken down.

“a question… call it odd coincidence, but i somehow just now noticed that ann has vanished from fb. hmmm… since i can’t imagine it was anything i said i’m hoping she didn’t get deviously hacked or something.—T”

I panicked. Deviously hacked??? What’s next? My bank account? But I went on FB and discovered my personal profile had, indeed, been disabled. WTF? I could not for the life of me figure out why.

UNLESS….

Unless it was a photo I did with Austin that I recently posted as my profile pic. It spoofed the iconic Roxy Music album cover for Country Life. We shot it over a year ago. It was a bit of an afterthought but it turned out so fantabulous that I wanted to save it for something special. But on March 29th my husband sent me this:
 

 
...with the explanation:

“New album from J. Mascis and some other dude who was in a band called Cobra Verde in the 90’s.”

DAMN! I knew Austin and I better get our “Country Life” cover out into the world TOOT SWEET lest we be accused of copying Mr. Mascis. (Oddly enough, I was saving OUR cover to use for future artwork on a CD of my own Seventies-inspired tunes and cover versions. Oh well.)

So I posted it on Easter. It seemed as appropriate as candy-colored Peeps or chocolate bunnies.. I thought, well, it is a TAD racy but not really considering what’s out there these days—case in point: Michelle “Bombshell” McGee. I mean, I wasn’t wearing a Nazi’s officer’s cap with outstretched arm and improvised Hitler ‘tache.

But someone must’ve complained. I read the FB fine print. “Obscene”? “Pornographic?” It seemed pretty harmless to me. (The only violation may have been the copious amount of photoshopping.) I suspect that complaint MIGHT have come from someone in my homestate of West Virginia. I’ve had to block a few of ‘em for the right-wing harangues. I try to be friends with everyone but….it can’t always be done.

Or maybe not? Maybe was it my last comments railing against Don Blankenship and Massey Coal for all the safety violations that are ignored time and time again until we lose more miners’ lives back in West Virginia? (Not to mention Massey’s mountaintop removal rape of Almost Heaven, turning huge swathes of the Appalachian mountains into Almost Hell). Or…WHAT?

Whatever the reason, I’m somewhat relieved to be off the damn thing. I’ve found I have a LOT more free time. Hey, I’m reading books! But I miss my 4,000 plus ‘friends’. Even the ones I really know!

Facebook, what gives? Can I have my original profile page back? There were so many great comments on that photo, the best being from someone who knew the original photographer of the original Roxy album cover who offered all sorts of insider info on how the photo was shot and who those girls were and what Bryan Ferry was up to in Spain where he found them!
 
UPDATE: Reinstate Ann Magnuson on Facebook

And while I have your attention: Ann just joined Twitter. Follow her here.

Richard,

Mikal Gilmore, a writer and senior editor at Rolling Stone, was similarly booted off Facebook for posting a photo of a Joey Heatherton album cover from the sixties that featured Joey topless.
I created a “Mikal Gilmore Group Page” with the intention of creating a big noise in hopes that his Facebook account would be re-instated. Within a few days we had over six hundred members and someone who knew some exec at Facebook shamed them into re-instating Mikal’s account. I suggest we do the same for Ann.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151185195333&ref=ts

It is NOT OK with me to lose Ann. What can we do to complain? Who do we contact?

That is such crap! Wouldn’t it be lovely if all of her friends all did their own tribute to the Roxy Music cover and had as their photo?

Shame, shame ... Ann looks great tho. and Facebook is a cesspool.

If you want to automatically backup your Facebook activity (this could happen to you) I suggest http://Eternos.com, it’s free and super easy to use.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112882908730083&ref=nf&v=info

They are always kicking my friend Jewel Shepard off FB for her funny, sometimes slightly risque photos. But as Jewel has proved with her album of real war images, they never kick anyone off for violent material. There is also a photo of the actual suicide of a Swedish heavy metal vocalist that people delight in posting and they never get kicked off for posting this dreadful thing. But if the photo were of the same guy sitting there wearing nothing but a breeze and a grin, one can be sure it would be immediately taken down. Our priorities are very screwed up.
They also kicked off another FB friend, Andrew Shearer, who is a wonderful, avant-garde artist and a great friend of the LBTQ community. We brought him back. Hopefully we can do the same for you.

Well, we all know that if you fondle, suckle, or stroke a tit, it’s considered pornographic and an image to be banned.  Slice one off, however, with plenty of spraying blood and gore, and you can post it anywhere.

So why am I not surprised?  *sigh* 

Facebook is the problem here. Really want to anger them? Then delete all your accounts and quit using it. It’s one of the worst sites on the internet and has all these people sucked into using and reduced our communication with our friends and family to one line messages that said friends and family then come out and attack you for.

Facebook is old news and hopefully will die soon.

So much for free speech. The land of the free my a**.

I changed my profile pic on FB for the next few days and just hope some others will do so also.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=849760260&ref=nf

I lost my account on Facebook for posting photographs of Book Titles… all freely bought on Amazon… go figure?

I still don’t understand why they lump nudity with violence in their terms and conditions? There should be an appeal process but sadly, despite what they say, it doesn’t exist.  I hope you have better luck than I did, and get your account back.

I was booted similarly in January for over a month without contact from Fb after posting a pic of a tattooed penis in a tattoo group. Meanwhile a pic of a woman being fucked by a pig remained.

It’s not necessarily a free speech issue because it involves no laws being passed by Congress. Facebook is Facebook’s to do what it wants.

HOWEVER, it does sound like something that runs contrary to its own terms of service and ridiculous in light of the number of photos in the singles ads that show up every time I’m on there.

They (FB) disabled a friend’s FB page after a woman repeatedly complained that I had created the page to defraud people (my friend is a professional athlete).  There were photos on the page that could ONLY have come from my friend or VERY close friends.  Not only that, but how can you defraud anyone when there was no where on the page where people were asked to send money, etc??

No I did not create the page.  HE did.  It was a way to stay in touch with casual friends (like me) and fans.  And he had it taken away because ONE screwy woman complained.  He hasn’t bothered setting up another one- too much hassle and he’s too busy right now anyway.

Sometimes FB just sux.

Well - i was to be expected. After changing my profile-pic to Anns very explicit pic it took FB exactly 6 hours to delete it.

Sorry but thats crap. Theres absolutly nothing vulgar or tasteless about the picture at all and it´s not more offensive than anything you will confront on a newsstand today.

I bet if it was Lady Gaga or Rhianna or someone lame like that, they would have left it up because the majority of the mindless / musically void sheep out there eat that garbage up with spoons these days. You are true artist Ann. FB can go ____ themselves with their Dudley-Do-Right mentality.

It’s a good thing Botticelli isn’t on Fb

http://krishashok.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/venus-di-milo.jpg

Ann!  Facebook can suck it!  But at the same time I’m glad this whole thing led me to read your above post regarding frackin’ Blankenship and the evil Massey. I live in PA in the crux of WV and OH. People are so naive and they don’t know what is going on with the mountains and the water and the land here. I think a massive performance art piece should be planned atop one of these wasted mountains where thousands of artists could weep and wail and pull our hair out in mass hysteria for what genocide has taken place there. The “making of” would be a fantastic documentary angle on the issue. I hope fb reinstates you. I’d love to follow what you’re up to. I saw you perform many times in L.A. Used to have a car named after a lyric in one of your songs (Chicken Pussy). Best Regards!

I wonder if the Sweet Apple cover photo accidentally got flipped? The image seems backwards.

Ann is the kindest, most caring, intelligent, creative and eloquent person that FB will ever see. If Ann is not re-instated , I will have no respect for Facebook. This entire issue is ridiculous. I am outraged. Give Ann back her account!

ARE YOU SERIOUS????? OMG. I keep telling people NOT to rely on FB. I was kicked off cos someone was using my photos and stalking me. I reported her, and they thought I was at fault. They finally wrote an email “our mistake, sorry,” 12 days after it happened a year ago.

Your data is STILL THERE. Account can be REACTIVATED. It’s not deleted!!

I am freaking out. ANN IS ONE OF THE VERY COOLEST BEST PEEPS HERE, or anywhere!!!

Yes, Ann, you have a lot more free time. But there was an upside, giving and getting so much cool info. It’s a way to stay in touch while being so far away from so many.

PS Initially I thought it WAS that Roxy Music cover. That’s why I was blown away. You can get or see this image in a record store or Amazon and many online sites. Plus compare it to so many online images found at major news sites, like ven the LA Times, NY Times, Huffingtonpost.com. OF course children can see those too!

THEY are violating the Supreme Court’s definition of obscenity. THEY are going further than the highest laws of the land. I looked into the people behind FB when I was booted off. Some of their legal counsel were on Bush’s legal team to get him selected first time around. They have people from the CIA behind FB. According to a vid I found. Dig around. It’s far MORE than Mark Zuckerman.

My heartfelt sympathies to all. Tread carefully on FB.

The Roxy music cover is waaaay better than whatever this Sweet Apple cover is trying to do. Both the models are emaciated and have weird expressions on their faces… not the best photo in my book. Who cares if FB took it down?

Hey Ann, gorgeous photo!
I think if Facebook expects a dress code for the photo ID they should say so. They should also have a more strategic and clear way of dealing with censorship issues and not disable an account if there is nothing X rated or clearly libelous without a warning first. They have options besides the heavy handed way they dealt with you, I hope Facebook reinacts your account. It will be a good sign that the system is responsive to reason.

Seriously- THAT was the thing that started the trouble?? And what a lovely riff on that famous cover, by the way! This has got to be one of the more (sorry, I mean MOST) ridiculous instances of censorship in FB yet! And it doesn’t really qualify as ‘Nudity’ in the prurient sense, in my book- even by a rather strict definition, I mean, seriously—underboob-?
It’ll blow over. Meantime—terrific picture, glad this attracted my attention to it, I always dug that Roxy cover. Particularly the ‘censored’ version that the record company timidly put out themselves in the 70’s which had just the bushes with no models there at all, that was hilarious.

Yeah, go ahead & quit using it. Lay off the facepipe. I dare ya.
Love,
FB

Kind of ridiculous.. Rolling Stone also had a cover of Janet Jackson topless with someone leses hands over her breasts.

I posted a full frontal of my friend and it was over looked by FB. Some jackasses report this stuff and FB wants to be PC by being un-PC for the times we live in.

Don’t go back to basefook. Ann, I ditched fb last month mainly because of their plot to utilize coal energy for their Oregon server farm. I feel for the people in WV and elsewhere who rely on coal mining jobs but the forever impacts on the land trump the economics in my book. So, I tried to off my profile using seppukoo.com but, surprise, fb is suing the Italian artists who set up that site. Cheers!

Ann,
Your photo is awesome!  Much better than the other album cover.  You had the facial expressions down!
Love you,
Scott

Bizarre flame, this. Considering the rank toxicity of most internet content and its general availability to anyone over the age of five,  it’s definitely odd that this lady’s camp pastiche of a camp old album cover (courtesy of Anthony Price, a high priest of camp in his day)  should get her banned. Maybe Facebook should focus on filtering out kiddie-fiddlers and other scumbags who use its resources.

Figure it out-
“It seemed pretty harmless to me.”, is a dead giveaway.

I may agree that it’s not really all that offensive, but why push the boundaries. Facebook is not a museum of contemporary art. Facebook needs to stand behind the traditional conservative business approach and I’m glad they do. Insisting they relax this attitude is the start to a slippery slope and it’s naive to think otherwise.

Wish I could remember the lady comic who said, “if a man sucks on a woman’s breast, the movie is X-rated. But it gets a PG if he cuts it off with a chain saw.”

this world makes me feel so crazy sometimes…

So Huffington Post ran my story about Ann getting kicked off fb and DIDN’T run the photo. Good thing I linked my article to this site. Expect lots of traffic.
http://www.dangerousminds.net/index.php/site/comments/ann_magnuson_kicked_off_facebook_wtf/

Sorry, wrong link. This goes to Ann’s story on Huff Po

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/belinda-etezad-rachman/when-facebook-dumps-you-w_b_534462.html

Why do you need to copy Roxy’s cover? Create your own.

And Facebook is facebook.  Just play by the rules, which are few and far between.  Why do you have to put up nude or nearly nude pics and then feign you’ve been victimized by FB?

If you go to a restaurant and it says “no shirt, no shoes, no service,” do you try to march in shirtless?  You’d have to be a fool to do that.

Same here — there’s a policy that you need to keep your shirt on.

Give us a break.  No one needs to see your tits on Facebook or your bony, anorexic body. 

There are kids on here too, you know.

Hey, go to MySpace if you want to put up a sleaze and call it art. If you want to put up porny pics for your profile, MySpace is the place to be.  It’s low rent and classless.  Seems like your style.

Otherwise, grow up!  You sound like a teenager moaning because you walked around nude and people found it tried their patience! 

Put a shirt on and grow up.

Nancy, you are missing the whole point of this story. Facebook does NOT have a process for kicking people off. It happens with no notice and it is very arbitrary in how the rules are enforced. And there are no bony or anorexic people in Ann’s photo, you must be talking about the one below it. Your choice of words such as “low rent and classless” makes me wonder what you are doing on the Dangerous Minds page. Seems like you may be looking for the “church lady” page. Ann is one of the coolest people around and nice to boot. This should not have happened to her but the story had a happy ending because people made noise. FB kicks people off all the time who are then cast off into outer darkness with no recourse. They make way too much money off us to treat us that way. THAT is the story.

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