Breastfeeding on LiveJournal

In June 2006, a number of users were suspended from LiveJournal because their default user icons showed pictures of a baby breastfeeding.

A user icon on LiveJournal is an image (100 by 100 pixels) which the user may associate with a post or a comment. The default user icon appears on some searches, on some lists, on the user info page, and when the user makes a comment or a post without specifically selecting an icon.

Some time before the middle of May 2006, a livejournal user Hardvice set his default icon to a piece of art showing Bea Arthur topless. This default icon was reported to LJ Abuse.

LJ Abuse are the group of people, mostly volunteers, who enforce the rules set down in the FAQ and the TOS. The team leader of LJ Abuse, Rahaeli, is an employee of SixApart (the company that owns LiveJournal).

LJ Abuse notified Hardvice that he could not use a picture of a bare-breasted woman as his default icon. Hardvice produced a replacement version of the picture with cups over the nipples. It is reported that LJ Abuse first said that this wasn't acceptable, and then changed their position and said that it was.

Hardvice says he then decided to test the rule by reporting other icons with bare-breasted women, including some of mothers breastfeeding their babies.