Would photographer Spencer Tunick be better off if he worked for Sports Illustrated? That’s the question Anna Merlan poses in an article of the same name on The Village Voice blog.

By now, most people are familiar with Facebook’s zero tolerance for nudity–and the targets of these policies are not what some may think. Family photos of new mothers breastfeeding their babies, art work, nudists, and nudist businesses have all had their photos deemed offensive by Facebook and removed from the site. In addition, Facebook has issued warnings and shut down pages for non-compliance.

What people may not be aware of is the process of evaluating photos that are deemed acceptable. According to Facebook, with few exceptions, the company does not just pull photos down of their own volition, except those that involve extreme and graphic images of things like child pornography. For the rest of posted photos, a Facebook user has to flag the photo as objectionable. If a content monitor employed by Facebook agrees, the photo is removed.

The New Yorker cartoons are not immune to Facebook’s anti-nudity stance. Neither is famed photographer Spencer Tunick, who was recently invited to submit photos of his art to Facebook, prior to posting, for approval after Facebook continued to take some of his photos down, froze his account, and occasionally threatened him with the deletion of his page.

According to an article in The Village Voice, all six photos submitted to Facebook by Tunick earlier this month were deemed objectionable. Tunick was instead asked to pixelate the nudity in his photos to make them acceptable. Tunick declined.However, according to The Village Voice writer Anna Merlan, Tunick did find a Facebook page that caught his interest: a page dedicated to the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue featuring models wearing only body paint.

The Village Voice blog titled “Maybe Facebook would let photographer Spencer Tunick post naked pics if he worked for Sports Illustrated.” Merlan wrote an article forblog titled “Maybe Facebook would let photographer Spencer Tunick post naked pics if he worked for Sports Illustrated.” Click here to read.

Have you ever had photos removed from Facebook or another social media site? Has your account ever been suspended or permanently shut down?