'Porn' nude charity calender sees Facebook BAN University of Warwick Rowing Society



Women from University of Warwick Rowing Society posed for 2014 edition

Posted to Facebook and Twitter to drum up publicity and funds for charity

It has raised £3,400 for Macmillan Cancer Support but hoped to raise more

Facebook removed the group's page for its 'explicitly sexual content'



Organiser Sophie Bell, 20, blasted Facebook's decision to delete page





A women’s university rowing club has been banned from Facebook after their nude charity calendar was branded as pornography.

Students from the University of Warwick Rowing Society dressed down for the shoot, which sold 1,500 copies, and raised thousands of pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support.

The 17 members of the group posed naked in their boat house and in action the River Avon before posting the pictures on both Facebook and Twitter.

VIDEO Scroll down to watch Warwick Uni Rowing Club's 2013 charity calender strip



One of the pictures taken as part of the women's University of Warwick Rowing Society's charity calendar

Facebook has completely removed the page after stating that the page's content breached its 'terms of use'





The group’s aim was to drum up more support from fans around the world and top their £3,400 total raised for the charity.

But the girls have been left devastated after Facebook removed their page ‘Warwick Rowing’s Women’s Naked Calendar’ for its ‘explicitly sexual content’.

The rowers were told they were breaching the social media sites’ ‘nudity and pornography’ policy.



Organiser Sophie Bell, 20, has blasted Facebook’s decision for harming their chances of raising more money for charity with their 2015 calendar, due to be released later this year.

The history and politics student, who has just finished her second year, said: ‘Facebook can unpublish pages after it gives you a warning to make amendments.

‘That happened to us a couple of times over the last year where they would ask us to remove certain pictures randomly because they breached their nudity and porn regulations.

Organiser Sophie Bell, 20, has blasted Facebook's decision for harming their chances of raising more money

Miss Bell believes Facebook's decision is 'borderline sexism' as the male group is allowed to keep its page

The group has already shot its 2015 calendar, which is due to be released in October this year

The rowers have sent countless emails to Facebook in a bid to try and get their page back up and running

‘We always made the amendments and took the pictures down - even though they were no racier than the others - but a few days ago they emailed and said the page was being completely removed.

‘They say it is because of nudity but we are not violating any of their terms and all the pictures we post are not indecent images or inappropriate.

‘It is awful for us because we had over 2,000 likes which provides us with a large platform for reaching out to our target market.

‘We are students so we don’t have a marketing budget so we do use social media as the main way of marketing it.



‘To have this page unfairly taken away is going to affect our sales for the 2015 calendar and decrease the amount we can make for charity.

‘There are loads of similar nude charity calendars who have Facebook pages plastered across the site - why aren’t they being asked to takes theirs down too.’

Hettie Reed, 22, who also organised the calendar, said the photos are 'tasteful' and not 'pornographic'

In an email sent to the rowers, Facebook told them their site had been removed for ‘violating’ its terms of use.

It said: ‘Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in the permanent loss of your account.’

The group has sent countless emails to the US site in order to try and explain their situation but have yet to receive a response.

But Sophie, who is originally from Upminster, Essex, added: ‘It is a charity calendar - how can it be porn?



‘The Facebook account for the male rower’s charity calendar hasn’t been deleted and their page is the same as ours. It is borderline sexism.



The 17 members of the group posed naked next to the River Avon and their boat house in Warwickshire

The page - 'Warwick Rowing's Women's Naked Calendar' - had over 2,000 likes before it was taken down

‘We don’t think they have a right to take it down. We’ve tried to get in contact with Facebook and sent emails but have got no response.’

The rowers raised £600 for Macmillan Cancer Support with their first calendar in 2013 which caused controversy when it was branded as ‘tacky’ for portraying women as ‘sex objects’.

But undeterred they took it a step further and this year’s calendar, which features the girls completely naked, has made a whopping £3,400 for charity.

And they have already shot the 2015 version which will go on sale at the end of October this year.

The 2014 calendar can be purchased from the University of Warwick Rowing Club's website.



Calendar girls and members of the rowing club - Frankie Salzano, 22, Hettie Reed, 22, and Sophie Bell, 20