I have deactivated my Facebook account after my artwork and illustration was wrongly banned by the site. The issue started when I got a warning from Facebook three weeks ago saying:

“You uploaded a photo that violates our Terms of Use, and this photo has been removed. Among other things, photos containing nudity, drug use, or other obscene content are not allowed, nor are photos that attack an individual or group. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled.”

I checked my Facebook page and obviously all of my artwork images were gone. I contacted the support people telling them that I believe they were making a mistake because none of my images are offensive or contain nudity at all. I got this answer from a support person from Facebook, which looked like a “canned” answer to me:

“A photo that you uploaded has been removed for violating Facebook’s Terms of Use. Photos containing drug use, nudity, or other graphic or sexually suggestive content are not allowed, nor are photos that depict violence or that attack an individual or group. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, we are unable to provide further information about the removed photo.
In order to prevent this from happening in the future, please refrain from posting photos of this kind and remove any that still exist on the site. For more information on conduct prohibited by Facebook, please read our Terms of Use, which can be accessed by clicking on the “terms” link at the bottom of any Facebook page.”

OK, so what we have here is that they presume I don’t know the terms of use and that I have violated them, but they say they are unable to say why they removed my images. So I wrote back to this person saying that I know the terms and I am positive that I didn’t violate them and they just did a mistake with my artwork. I said:

“I have the feeling that respectable artists like me are not welcomed in Facebook, but I never read so in the Terms of Use. What am I supposed to do now?”

I didn’t get answer to this: no apologies, not explanation, no benefit of doubt. It looks to me like a pretty arrogant behavior for a network community that pretends to be so welcoming to artists. Why should I trust Facebook and spend the time posting my images again without the certainty that they won’t be removed again I am accused from violating the terms without any evidence?

I know of art being removed at Facebook for showing breast-feeding, which personally I think is ridiculous, but, hey! my artwork doesn’t even features that. Everyone is fully dressed and the stuff I ever posted is pretty much the same I have now in my portfolio, so you tell me what could be offensive.

So I have canceled my Facebook account. I entered this network about a year ago because I thought it was a nice way too keep in touch with other artists, people from the design world and some friends. I even recommended to many people that they try Facebook and many of them did. Now I just want to warn other artists: don’t get surprised if you get a warning tomorrow if your innocent illustration gets banned in Facebook. It could happen to anyone.