BJ Gay Filmmaker Fan Popo Lashes Out at Facebook Over Censorship
UPDATE, Dec 29, 8am: A spokesperson at Facebook has responded to the Beijinger's request for comment about this incident in an email, writing: "I can confirm that the content was removed for violating our Community Standards. Here is background information on our Community Standards, which applies to this case. As outlined in our Community Standards (facebook.com/communitystandards#nudity):
We restrict the display of nudity because some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content – particularly because of their cultural background or age.
We will remove content that violates our Community Standards when it is reported.
We remove photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks. We also restrict some images of female breasts if they include the nipple, but we always allow photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring. We also allow photographs of paintings, sculptures and other art that depicts nude figures. Restrictions on the display of both nudity and sexual activity also apply to digitally created content unless the content is posted for educational, humorous or satirical purposes.
Explicit images of sexual intercourse are prohibited. Descriptions of sexual acts that go into vivid detail may also be removed.
In order to treat people fairly and respond to reports quickly, it is essential that we have policies in place that our global teams can apply uniformly and easily when reviewing content. As a result, our policies can sometimes be more blunt than we would like and restrict content shared for legitimate purposes.
The consequences for violating our Community Standards vary depending on the severity of the violation and the person’s history on Facebook. For instance, we may warn someone for a first violation, but if we continue to see further violations we may restrict a person’s ability to post on Facebook."
Though filmmaker Fan Popo was surprised to have an article about his experience working on a queer porn shoot published in Chinese media, he was flat out shocked to later see that content censored on a Western platform. Such a surreal switch up of stereotypes – Chinese media so often criticized by the rest of the world and used as the archetype of a closed-off and heavily monitored network – lead Fan to question how best to disseminate his messages of tolerance and goodwill to China's queer community.
The online dustup on Dec 21 when the director – noted for his documentary Mama Rainbow, which in itself caused a stir when it was banned from Chinese streaming platforms like Youku – posted a link to an essay that he wrote for Vice China about a 2013 porn shoot he partook in for popular subculture site kink.com. After posting the link, which had been published earlier that day by Vice, Fan promptly received a notice from Facebook saying he was banned from the social media platform for 24 hours for posting pornographic content. It was not clear whether a user had flagged the content but the ban was even more baffling given that Fan had posted photos from the shoot back in 2013, shortly after it had wrapped.
A scene from the kink.com shoot
"Those original pictures from 2013 are still there," Fan tells the Beijinger, before sarcastically adding: "If those photos are poisonous to other users, I would be really sorry. But in that case, Facebook should also be ashamed for carelessly letting those images go up years ago, so that so many people could see them."
Fan is more than confident that those photos aren't "poisonous" as he put it, because of all the positive feedback he received after both his initial posting of the photos in 2013 and his posting of the Vice article. "People liked it, they were curious about it, but they barely had a chance to see and read about it [on Facebook]," he says. "Getting that kind of response from people is the reason why I felt it was so valuable to write the essay in the first place – especially in the Chinese speaking world, which is so lacking of sex-positive information. So many people just won’t talk about sexuality in China, or they'll talk about it in a very negative way."
Fan's mission to counteract such negative impressions of homosexuality in China seemed to gain traction when Vice's Beijing bureau accepted his pitch about the porn shoot. "I was quite surprised that Vice China could publish it. But I was more shocked when it was censored by Facebook, as we always assume the censorship in China is more strict than in the US."
After the 24 hour ban was lifted, Fan logged back in to contest the ban
Despite all that, this recent experience has led Fan to look at censorship in a more nuanced light. He says, "It seems we have to see it on a case by case basis. Censorship in different environments is due to different interests, and there is often a random element." As an example, he points to Facebook's censoring a gay kiss in 2011, though he believes the social media platform barred him for 24 hours because of anti-porn policies, and not due to homophobia.
What's more: the Vice article gained plenty of traction on Chinese social media platforms, even as Facebook banned Fan for posting the same link. "I was very inspired by how popular this article is in China. It got a lot of positive and funny comments."
The post went viral on Chinese platforms, even as Facebook banned Fan for posting it
Amongst the flood of feedback he received in the article's comments section and on Chinese social media were numerous queries about Van Darkholme, the director of the kink.com clip. "He is a big icon for subculture groups, so they were crazy to know someone who had worked with him," Fan says of the readers who reached out to him about that point. More memorable than that, however, were the readers speculating about the sexuality of the clip's star (Fan notes in his essay that that actor says he is straight, despite his participation in a gay porn shoot), which lead to discussions about sexuality as a spectrum. Most importantly of all: "The readers also commented a lot about safe sex and the prevention of HIV/AIDS, both in the porn industry and in daily life."
For Fan, that reaction "proved to me that we really need this kind of information out there for queer Chinese people to read and discuss. I really appreciate that Vice China is promoting subcultures and diversity in this way."
All that has left Fan feeling heartened, despite the obstacles he has faced in getting his work out over the years or, as he puts it, "In the end, this event makes me feel even more strongly about continuing my writing. I won’t care about censorship, I believe I can always find a way to reach my readers."
To read Fan's essay about the film shoot on Vice China, click here (no English version has been published yet).
Photos: Sui/the Beijinger, Vice China
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