Why did Facebook ban this user for posting a photo of two fully clothed men kissing?

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a pink background.

A photographer has said he had his page banned for 30-days by Facebook for sharing a picture of two men, fully clothed, kissing.

The picture appeared to have been shared from Michael Stokes Photography’s Facebook page, and shows a message reading that the page was banned for 30 days afterwards.

The screenshot of the image, which also seems to show that the page was blocked from posting anything, with the error message: “This feature is temporarily blocked”, was subsequently shared widely on social media.

GayPolice

The image was banned by Facebook

It was shared by porn actor Jessie Jackman, who wrote: “Since recently receiving a 30-day Facebook ban for posting a photo of two fully clothed gay police officers, Michael Stokes Photography has received many, many messages of support. But he can’t reply to any of them.

“Let’s put an end to anti-LGBT discrimination on Facebook.”

A petition has also been started at  www.facethehate.org, which calls on Facebook to change the policy for reporting pages and people’s profiles, in order to prevent harassment and bullying.

The petition has been signed over 13,000 times.

Facebook has not yet returned a call for comment from PinkNews.

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