Social networks are regularly accused of hiding photos of women. On Instagram, Facebook, or even LinkedIn, posts illustrating pregnant women’s bellies, nipples, or women in bathing suits are removed from subscribers’ feeds or even deleted.
A poll by the British media The Guardian It shows above all that the same photos highlighting men have no problem according to the algorithms used by the different platforms.
Photos considered too naughty
The newspaper, for example, compared a hundred photographs that showed women and men in the same conditions, on a beach in bathing suits or doing sports, using the artificial intelligence tools used by Google and Microsoft (owner of LinkedIn). Result: Photos featuring all women scored much higher for “cheeky,” around 100% versus 3% overall for photos of men.
Images that show the belly of pregnant women are also flagged by these algorithms, which consider these types of photographs to be “of a sexually suggestive nature.”
One particular AI specialist had tried posting the same text on LinkedIn but with two different photos: one with two women in tank tops, the other with the image of a basketball player. The first post only got 29 views, while the second one got 849. Proof that the algorithm of the professional social network chooses which photos will be displayed.
no bras
But the most eloquent proof is still the one that the specialist himself carried out by photographing himself several times with a naked torso, then holding a bra in his hand, before putting it on. Then, each photograph was analyzed by the artificial intelligence used by Microsoft and the result is final. The shirtless photos of the journalist only have a cheekiness rate of 11%, a rate that only increases as soon as the bra appears in the photo, reaching a score of 99% when the underwear is stretched next to the man’s body.
For several years, many Internet users have complained that their photos have been removed from social networks. Instagram was even recently called to order for more equality regarding photos of bare breasts and transgender people. The Meta surveillance council then asked the social network to define “clear, objective and respectful criteria for human rights so that people are treated without discrimination based on sex or gender, in accordance with international human rights standards.”
Source: BFM TV
