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Brilio.net/en - Boobs tend to make social media uncomfortable. (Read also: Social media meets the boobs) But where does the lines between traditional culture and modern standards intersect?
Last Saturday the Puteri Indonesian 2016 pageant was broadcast on Indosiar. While the show went smoothly otherwise, many viewers were puzzles as to the decision of the broadcast company blurring out the chest and legs of some women who were wearing the traditional Indonesian kebaya. This censorship comes at the time when the Indonesian culture is being heavily guarded, especially as technology comes into play as seen with the government banning gay emojis. (Read also: Indonesia urges messaging apps to drop same-sex love emoji)
Even Facebook in Indonesia is increasingly censoring more and more content, as 23-year old Jakarta native Dea Basori experienced. After the pageant, the young dental student, who is of Javanese descent, compiled a photo album of images found on the Internet of traditional Indonesian women in their traditional outfits. The images are dated, black and white and possess the charm of a world long gone. Most of the images are from the 1900s but in some more rural parts of Indonesias archipelago, women can be found going topless. Deas intent with her public album was to educate the Internet about Indonesian culture. And she had quite a success as she amassed 3,000 shares in under 24-hours. Unfortunately, she also received nearly 50 reports for nudity and explicit content, which resulted in Facebook deactivating her account.
Facebook has disabled my account for good because I posted photos of Indonesian Women in history. pic.twitter.com/SBPtBJtkgE
DEA (@DeaSB) February 24, 2016
But Dea didnt go down silently, and wrote a letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, noting: My personal Facebook account has been disabled for sharing historical photos of Indonesian women. The women were mostly topless, in line with their traditional way of dressing. I shared these photographs for educational purposes, because our history has been forgotten. I posted the photos to question certain conservative elites that censor womens bodies and state that they want to protect traditional Indonesian culture. My aim is to illustrate what that traditional culture is.
According to Facebooks Community Standard posts, she should have some luck. The restrictions for nudity are enforced sexual behavior, as stated in the guidelines: restrictions on the display of both nudity and sexual activity also apply to digitally created content unless the content is posted for educational, humorous or satirical purposes.
The kebaya is about as traditional Indonesian as you can get. The censorship begs the questions whos culture are we actually preserving?
(brl/tis)
