Facebook reverses ban on Led Zeppelin's iconic 'Houses of the Holy' album cover featuring naked children

  • Artwork for the grammy-nominated album cover was created by Aubrey Powell 
  • Facebook removed a post featuring the cover over complaints from its users 
  • It decided to reinstate the post due to the 1973 album's cultural significance
  • It will now adjust its review process to ensure other posts are not banned

By Tim Collins For Mailonline

Published: 07:01 EDT, 21 June 2019 | Updated: 07:29 EDT, 21 June 2019

Facebook has overturned a ban it placed on the covert art of Led Zeppelin's iconic 'Houses of the Holy' fifth studio album.

The social network removed a post by website Ultimate Classic Rock (UCR) featuring the grammy-nominated cover over complaints it received from other users.

The company later reinstated the post, which features naked children scrambling over Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway, due to its cultural significance.

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Facebook has overturned a ban it placed on the covert art of Led Zeppelin's iconic 'Houses of the Holy' fifth studio album. The social network removed a post featuring the grammy-nominated cover (pictured) over complaints it received from other users.

Facebook has overturned a ban it placed on the covert art of Led Zeppelin's iconic 'Houses of the Holy' fifth studio album. The social network removed a post featuring the grammy-nominated cover (pictured) over complaints it received from other users.

At the time of its removal UCR was told 'there are rules regarding nudity and solicitation that we have to follow' and that the image had been 'flagged by other members of the community.'

A spokesman for the social network told UCR: 'As our community standards explain, we don’t allow nude images of children on Facebook.

'But we know this a culturally significant image. Therefore, we’re restoring the posts we removed.'

Facebook says it will now adjust its review process, to ensure that other posts featuring the image are not banned. 

Facebook decided to reinstate the post, which features naked children scrambling over Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway, due to its cultural significance. Led Zeppelin pictured left to right: Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones (behind), John Bonham (front)

Facebook decided to reinstate the post, which features naked children scrambling over Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway, due to its cultural significance. Led Zeppelin pictured left to right: Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones (behind), John Bonham (front)

Covert art for the group's album, released in 1973, was created by Aubrey Powell of the Hipgnosis collective.

The group rose to prominence in the 70s for the unique visual style it provided the album covers of a number of high profile rock bands of the era.

That includes the work of Storm Thorgerson, whose design for Pink Floyd's groundbreaking 1973 concept album Dark Side of the Moon.

It has been hailed by numerous critics and in polls of music fans as one of the greatest album covers of all time. 

Powell's design for Houses of the Holy was inspired by seminal science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke's 1953 novel Childhood's End.

It features are Stefan and Samantha Gates, two child models, and is a collage of several images captured during the Causeway photoshoot.

Despite taking 10 days to shoot, the pair said in a 2007 interview that they were unfazed by the naked photoshoot. 

'I remember the shoot really clearly, mainly because it was freezing cold and rained the whole time,' Ms Gates, an actor and screenwriter, said in a 2007 interview with the Daily Mail.

'We were naked in a lot of the modelling shoots we did, nothing was thought of it back then. You probably couldn’t get away with that now.'

Speaking about the experience Mr Gates, who later became a television presenter, added: 'We only got a few quid for the modelling and the chance to travel to places we had never been before.

'Our family wasn't well off, we certainly couldn't afford holidays, so it worked out great for us.'

WHAT DO FACEBOOK'S GUIDELINES FOR CONTENT SAY?

Facebook has disclosed its rules and guidelines for deciding what its 2.2 billion users can post on the social network. 

The full guidelines can be read here. Below is a summary of what they say: 

1. Credible violence

Facebook says it considers the language, context and details in order to distinguish casual statements from content that constitutes a credible threat to public or personal safety.

2. Dangerous individuals and organisations

Facebook does not allow any organizations or individuals that are engaged in terrorist, organized hate, mass or serial murder, human trafficking, organized violence or criminal activity.

3. Promoting or publicising crime

Facebook says it prohibit people from promoting or publicizing violent crime, theft, and/or fraud. It does not allow people to depict criminal activity or admit to crimes they or their associates have committed. 

4. Coordinating harm

The social network says people can draw attention to harmful activity that they may witness or experience as long as they do not advocate for or coordinate harm. 

5. Regulated goods

The site prohibits attempts topurchase, sell, or trade non-medical drugs, pharmaceutical drugs, and marijuana as well as firearms. 

6. Suicide and self-injury

The rules for 'credible violence' apply for suicide and self-injury. 

7. Child nudity and sexual exploitation of children

Facebook does not allow content that sexually exploits or endangers children. When it becomes aware of apparent child exploitation, we report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

8. Sexual exploitation of adults

The site removes images that depict incidents of sexual violence and intimate images shared without permission from the people pictured.

9. Bullying

Facebook removes content that purposefully targets private individuals with the intention of degrading or shaming them.

10. Harassment

Facebook's harassment policy applies to both public and private individuals.

It says that context and intent matter, and that the site will allow people to share and re-share posts if it is clear that something was shared in order to condemn or draw attention to harassment.  

11. Privacy breaches and image privacy rights

Users should not post personal or confidential information about others without first getting their consent, says Facebook. 

12. Hate speech

Facebook does not allow hate speech on Facebook because it says it creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion and in some cases may promote real-world violence. 

13. Graphic violence

Facebook will remove content that glorifies violence or celebrates the suffering or humiliation of others.

It will, however, allow graphic content (with some limitations) to help people raise awareness about issues.

14. Adult nudity and sexual activity

The site restricts the display of nudity or sexual activity.

It will also default to removing sexual imagery to prevent the sharing of non-consensual or underage content.

15. Cruel and insensitive

Facebook says it has higher expectations for content that defined as cruel and insensitive.

It defines this as content that targets victims of serious physical or emotional harm. 

16. Spam

Facebook is trying to prevent false advertising, fraud and security breaches.

It does not allow people to use misleading or inaccurate information to artificially collect likes, followers or shares. 

17. Misrepresentation

Facebook will require people to connect on Facebook using the name that they go by in everyday life.

18. False news

Facebook says that there is also a fine line between false news and satire or opinion. 

For these reasons, it won't remove false news from Facebook, but, instead, significantly reduce its distribution by showing it lower in News Feed.

19. Memorialisation

Facebook will memorialise accounts of people who have died by adding "Remembering" above the name on the person's profile. 

The site will not remove, update or change anything about the profile or the account. 

20. Intellectual property

Facebook users own all of the content and information that they post on Facebook, and have control over how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. 

21. User requests

Facebook say they will comply with:

  • User requests for removal of their own account
  • Requests for removal of a deceased user's account from a verified immediate family member or executor
  • Requests for removal of an incapacitated user's account from an authorised representative

22. Additional protection of minors

Facebook complies with:

  • User requests for removal of an underage account
  • Government requests for removal of child abuse imagery depicting, for example:
  • Beating by an adult
  • Strangling or suffocating by an adult
  • Legal guardian requests for removal of attacks on unintentionally famous minors
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Facebook reverses ban on Led Zeppelin album cover it removed

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