The issue arose when a transgender and nonbinary couple posted photos in 2021 and 2022 of their bare chests with their nipples covered. Captions included details about a fund-raiser for one member of the couple to have top surgery, a gender-affirming procedure to flatten a person’s chest. Instagram removed the photos after other users reported them, saying their depiction of breasts violated the site’s Sexual Solicitation Community Standard. The couple appealed the decision and the photos were subsequently reinstated.

The couple’s back-and-forth with Instagram underscored criticism that the platform’s guidelines for adult content are unclear. According to its community guidelines, Instagram bars nude photos but makes some exceptions for a range of content types, including mental health awareness posts, depictions of breastfeeding and other “health related situations” — parameters that Meta’s board described as “convoluted and poorly defined” in its summary.

How to decide what depictions of people’s chests should be allowed on social media platforms has long been a source of debate. Scores of artists and activists contend that there is a double standard under which posts of women’s chests are more likely to be deleted than those of men. Such is also the case for transgender and nonbinary people, advocates say.

Meta’s oversight board, a body of 22 academics, journalists and human rights advocates, is funded by Meta but operates independently of the company and makes binding decisions for it. The group recommended that the platforms further clarify the Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity Community Standard, “so that all people are treated in a manner consistent with international human rights standards, without discrimination on the basis of sex or gender.”

It also called for “a comprehensive human rights impact assessment on such a change, engaging diverse stakeholders, and create a plan to address any harms identified.”