Flemish museums mock Facebook to censor Peter Paul Rubens nudes

For hundreds of years, the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens is famous for his "fleshy" nude paintings. But now they have been censored on Facebook.

The Flemish Tourism Board wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, signed by most museums in Belgian Flanders.

The letter claims that Facebook systematically rejects Rubens' works and asks if the representations of "breasts, buttocks and cherubs" of the artist are really indecent. The letter says that even though they must laugh at censorship, it makes their lives difficult.

The signatories write that they would like to present Flemish Tourism Masters and Flanders on Facebook, while art lovers use the platform. "The art connects, just like social media," they wrote. The letter also postulates that if Rubens had Facebook, he would have had a big fan page.

Facebook does not ban artistic nudes on its platform, but ads are not allowed to contain "adult content," which includes nudity, even if it is artistic.

To illustrate his point, the Flemish Tourism Board released a video featuring "social media police officers" who physically block gallery visitors with a Facebook account while watching nude paintings.

The Director General of the Flemish Tourist Board told the Guardian: "Unfortunately, promoting our unique cultural heritage on the world's most popular social network is impossible at the moment."

According to the Guardian, Facebook had accepted an offer from the Flemish Tourism Office to talk about the case. Facebook declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.