Facebook- A curator or an enemy - Essay Example

? of Facebook- A curator or an enemy Introduction Summary How would a person feel when they are trying to showcase their works of art to the world at large, through a social medium, and they get blocked or their work gets removed? The article here is trying to address how Facebook is blocking the works of artists who are projecting it through this social networking website. Nevertheless, Facebook is trying to defend its actions by calling it a ‘mistake’. Many artists from all around the world have experienced the same. They have had their pictures and, in some cases, even their accounts blocked. This article is pointing out a recent victim, The New York University of Art, which lost its rights for uploading any images of their artwork, the reason being the violation of rules and regulations of Facebook. The works included nude images, which is against Facebook policy. The University's authority classed this, an unfair action against art; nevertheless, they raised their voice through a blog, complaining about Facebook's rules and regulations. Thesis Statement Blocking the projects of the artists on the medium where individual individuals have complete freedom to express themselves. Isn’t that ironic? Rhetorical Aspects of the article being analyzed Purpose, Genre and Style This article was published in The New York Times. The issue being addressed is the problem faced by an institution of art as their work is being deleted and accounts blocked by Facebook as it contains nudity. However, later, the site officials claimed that it was a mistake on their part and they had no intention, whatsoever, of hurting anyone's feelings. Moreover, they encouraged people who had lost their work to post it again. Drawing nude live models is considered the most effective way to develop the basic draftsmanship skill of an artist. Hence, it is considered to be the most important part of an artist’s work. Using Facebook as a medium, artists share their work with art lovers all around the globe. Nevertheless, Facebook blocking their work became a deterrent for these artists. Artists are more emphasizing towards the blocking of the nude content and have been concerned with the fact that the Facebook officials must have seen that the nude pictures were actual works of art, yet, they decided to block it. The genre is complaining about the careless behavior of world’s largest social network platforms. Angle of Vision The author of this passage seems to blame Facebook for these actions but, in my opinion, if Facebook has some certain terms and conditions then they are free to apply it on all forms of work. Facebook does not allow photos which attack a person or group or images which depict drug use or contain violence or nudity. If Facebook requires it's users to follow certain rules and regulations, then we are all required to follow them as responsible individuals. If they say that a photo should not ‘contain’ nudity, then nudity in any form should be banned. Some people are of the view that Facebook is assailing artists, this, however, is a misinterpretation as according to Facebook's representative, their investigators only check those images that are flagged/reported and then according to the nature of the report (how many people find that abusing) they remove the content. Therefore, if other users are uncomfortable with that image then there is no way that that content should be kept on the site. For an institution like the New York University of Art, there are other ways of sharing their artwork with people interested in art like their own website or blogs. Secondly, seeing these types of drawings in galleries is one thing and seeing them on Facebook is another. Not everyone visits galleries, neither do they have a rule against nudity but on Facebook they do have rules. Many people, who are interested in art but are against nude forms of art, visit these pages much often. Evidence from the article The academy was at loss as their account was blocked and they were unable to share anything on Facebook. David Kratz says that primary objective of the academy is to teach figurative art and because of the ban, it has become difficult to share the artwork with individuals and public at large. The Academy took the matter to the blog where it posted the details of the incident and made it clear that the purpose of posting the pictures was to uphold the traditional art values and share it with the world. Furthermore, two artists of the academy who were graduates shared similar experiences. John Wellington and Richard T. Scott posted the artwork, Facebook removed it, and the accounts were blocked. However, Facebook apologized for it's actions. Conclusion So what happened? Facebook now says it made a mistake. While the company bans nude photographs, its representatives say the company has an unwritten policy that allows drawings or sculptures of nudes”. Most importantly, the article contains a line saying ‘yet the image- an ink-on-paper drawing of a woman’s naked upper body by Steven Assael- was hardly racy’. Be it a drawing or a captured image through a digital camera, it still is a nude image and Facebook prohibits it. The statement speaks for itself. They themselves are accepting the fact that the banned images were nude, however, they were thankful to the social networking website that they have now allowed the images to be uploaded on the site I would like to conclude my article by saying that people should sit back and take a moment to think about what they are doing. Start looking at things in a wider perspective and through other people's point of view. If someone accuses them of something, instead of lashing out, try to understand what you are doing wrong and rectify it. Recommendation Although I concede that Facebook made mistake when they closed the school’s account. I still insist that is not enough and Facebook should establish agreement with user to avoid future problems. Similarly with other website they have page agreement that user should submit the agreement and read the police to avoid violence the rules, so Facebook should start that it is a good beginning to avoid any mistake from the user. Other thing would be helpful in uploading image is to tag the picture to classify it, to avoid the confusing between what is painting and what is image. As result it is very important for Facebook to work on having regulations and guidelines written clearly in their website and not depending on the staffs who have different perspective about what is right and what is wrong to monitor the band, which led to have band or some institution and some dose not according to this article Works Cited Helft, M. Art School Runs Afoul of Facebook’s Nudity Police, (2011). Retrieved from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/art-school-runs-afoul-of-facebooks-nudity-police/ Accessed on 17th March 2013 Read More