The movie poster Parallel mothers shows a black and white nipple from which hangs a drop of milk, inside an eye on a red background, the whole giving the impression of a crying eye.
Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar on Thursday warned against the abuse of algorithms, after the brief Instagram withdrawal of the poster for his next film, Parallel Mothers, which represents a nipple.
In a text posted on Instagram by Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, who stars in Parallel mothers, he thanks the internet users and the media for having “succeeded in making sure that the minds behind the algorithm which decides what is or is not obscene and offensive have backed down and allowed the poster to circulate freely “.
The poster shows a black and white nipple from which hangs a drop of milk, inside an eye on a red background, the whole giving the impression of a crying eye.
This poster was briefly withdrawn from the social network on Monday when it was first published for non-compliance with “rules of use”, sparking controversy on social networks and in the media in Spain.
“We have to be vigilant before the machines decide what we can do and what we cannot do,” the director warned, believing that “however much information the algorithm has , he will never have a heart or good sense ”, because“ an algorithm is not human ”.
“A clear artistic context”
Instagram had said “sorry” for this incident Wednesday, through the voice of its parent company Facebook.
“We first removed several posts with this image for violating our rules on nudity,” said a spokesperson for Facebook. “We are, however, making exceptions to allow nudity in certain cases, such as when there is a clear artistic context. So we have reinstated the posts sharing the Almodóvar movie poster on Instagram, and we are so sorry. for any confusion, “added this spokesperson.
Instagram is regularly singled out for automatic image removal under its very strict nudity and anti-pornography policy. The app claims that its rules have evolved and become more “nuanced”, to make exceptions when it comes to nudity when it comes, for example, to breastfeeding, nudity at events or in art.
Parallel Mothers, which is due out on September 10 in Spanish theaters, will open the 78th edition of the Venice Film Festival, where it will compete and which takes place from September 1 to 11.
