A couple of weeks ago a friendly follower pitched us the website #isitnude. Basically it uses artificial intelligence to figure out whether a picture contains nudity or not. Sounds familiar? If you ever had a Facebook or Instagram ban for nudity (often not legit, but that’s another story) you know exactly why we found this subject interesting. Although we don’t have proof of this, we’re pretty sure that these artificial intelligence algorithms are exactly what social media is using to figure out whether our photos are appropriate or not. Maybe after the machine check a real person does a double check, but we honestly doubt it. Based on some of the photos for which we have been banned, the big anti-nudity machine seems to be nothing more than… exactly… a machine.
We’re not going to bother you with many of the details about how this system actually works, if you want to read more about it, you can find all info Here. What it comes down to is that just like for face recognition it searches for skin patches and based on their positions and sizes the system tries to figure out whether the skin is part of one of those body parts that should remain hidden for the world (according to them, not to us). One could call it “penis recognition” or “female nipple recognition”… One term even more disturbing than the other.
Does it really work?
Why do we even bother? If you’ve been following our Instagram page you already know that we’ve gotten fed up with social media censorship a long time ago and that we’ve been using our own ways to hide the “delicate” body parts. And that has been working very well and we’re having a great time taking those pictures (what else would we do all day at a nude beach?).
But as nudist bloggers we feel like it’s our responsibility… no, our duty to test this system! We feel like we have to educate humanity! We feel like we have to check every little detail that has even by far something to do with nudism!
Nah, we’re kidding with you. We just have a lot of time and we love messing with these things.
Here’s what we did. We searched for a huge amount of pictures on the internet with the purpose to check whether this algorithm really works, what it has to say about the pictures for which we got banned on social media and most important: whether we can fool the system!
But as nudist bloggers we feel like it’s our responsibility… no, our duty to test this system! We feel like we have to educate humanity! We feel like we have to check every little detail that has even by far something to do with nudism!
Nah, we’re kidding with you. We just have a lot of time and we love messing with these things.
Here’s what we did. We searched for a huge amount of pictures on the internet with the purpose to check whether this algorithm really works, what it has to say about the pictures for which we got banned on social media and most important: whether we can fool the system!
So does it really work? Let’s start with the basics. We’ll feed the website pictures of clothed people and naked people and see what it has to say.
Ok, so far so good. For both men and women the system clearly detects when a person is nude. Interestingly it’s always 100% sure about the nudity while only ninety-ish about being not nude. Does this mean that the algorithm leans more towards nudity? Or does the system just want us to double check our images for an accidental nipple before we post them on Facebook? We’ll leave that in the middle.
Above images were pretty obvious of course, let’s see what it has to say about male and female chests.
Interesting… the nude chest of a man lifting weights is not really nude while the chest of a woman on the beach clearly is 100% nude. Of course this only proves what we already knew and what the whole #freethenipple movement is all about.
Then we started wondering… which upper body parts really define whether we are male or female. Does the algorithm uniquely know this by the form of the chest?
An evil mind took over and we wondered… what if we cut off their heads?
Then we started wondering… which upper body parts really define whether we are male or female. Does the algorithm uniquely know this by the form of the chest?
An evil mind took over and we wondered… what if we cut off their heads?
If that’s you on the picture we’re truly sorry about the head, we’ll get you a new one! But hey, at least you helped proving a point. Without the guy’s broad cheek bones the system isn’t that sure anymore. As we can see on the picture of the lady, the form certainly has something to do with it because it’s still 100% nude but now also the guy appears to be pretty nude as well.
Lessons learned for the men: When you want to brag with your broad chest, make sure to include your face or social media may not like it!
Lessons learned for the men: When you want to brag with your broad chest, make sure to include your face or social media may not like it!
Messing with the algorithm
Alright, we think we can say that the algorithm works pretty well although we’ve already been able to fool it once during our first tests.
That was cool and interesting, but now let’s have some fun!
That was cool and interesting, but now let’s have some fun!
Case: You’re really sick of Facebook and you want to quit your account but then all your friends will be saying “hey, don’t you like me anymore?”, “how are you going to look at the pictures of my food and cats now?” and stuff like that. So you actually WANT Facebook to ban you but you don’t feel much for exposing yourself butt naked for all of Facebook to see…
The perfect solution: A nude suit!
The perfect solution: A nude suit!
Kissing your baby in a weird position might also do the trick…
Case: You really really want to flash some naked body parts on Facebook but you do not want to get banned.
Solution: Body painting works like a charm!
Solution: Body painting works like a charm!
See through clothing does not.
Will this system protect us?
As we can see, it’s pretty hard to define what will be allowed and what not. Of course it’s a lot of fun to play with these things but in the end they are implemented to protect the social media users. To protect ourselves.
Let’s have a look at how much we can rely on this protection.
Let’s have a look at how much we can rely on this protection.
Case: Let’s say you’re Rihanna or Mariah Carey and you have a serious problem with escaping nipples. Will you be safe on social media?
Sorry Mariah and RiRi…
Case: You got ridiculously drunk in Ibiza and someone talked you into buying a Borat bathing suit. Will you regret this tomorrow?
Case: You got ridiculously drunk in Ibiza and someone talked you into buying a Borat bathing suit. Will you regret this tomorrow?
Not so very naaiize…
Case: You only brought one bikini to Ibiza, you evil girlfriends decided to cut away most of it and all the bikini stores are closed.
Case: You only brought one bikini to Ibiza, you evil girlfriends decided to cut away most of it and all the bikini stores are closed.
We may be joking but this is actually very sad… Remember the photos from our first tests? Those were forbidden. But this one perfectly passes the test.
Nudity in the animal kingdom
As far as we know, the no-nudity rules on social media only apply on humans. That would be really weird if you were forced to put your pets in ridiculous dresses before you can post their picture on the internet. But these days, you never know.
So we decided to do the test with the animals closest to people: monkeys
So we decided to do the test with the animals closest to people: monkeys
Both or monkeys passed the test! Hooray!
Short side note: If your partner says you’re a pig we’re pretty sure that doesn’t count.
Unfortunately we also found animals that didn’t succeed… Strangely enough we couldn’t even see any of their “forbidden parts”…
Short side note: If your partner says you’re a pig we’re pretty sure that doesn’t count.
Unfortunately we also found animals that didn’t succeed… Strangely enough we couldn’t even see any of their “forbidden parts”…
Is that a penis on your face? According to #isitnude it 36% certainly is. No wonder the poor guy looks so sad.
Nudity in the arts
Some time ago we couldn’t have been more proud about our Belgian tourism board because they were picking a fight with Facebook through this hilarious video for banning nudity in art.
So we wondered what #isitnude would think about this.
So we wondered what #isitnude would think about this.
Apparently the 17th century Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens knew pretty well how to paint anatomically correct nudes.
Now that nude museum tours are becoming a big thing around the world, can you post pictures of that experience online?
Now that nude museum tours are becoming a big thing around the world, can you post pictures of that experience online?
Yes you can! As long as you get closely together in a somewhat awkward pose.
Talking about lots of naked people, what will they say about Spencer Tunick?
Talking about lots of naked people, what will they say about Spencer Tunick?
Also Spence passed the test perfectly!
Our “nude” pictures
Although all these tests have been a lot of fun to do, we do get some doubts about society. Or at least about how society is seen by some machine running on artificial intelligence. Dark nightmares of The Terminator movie are coming back. How bad will it be for us if we let machines make the decision between good or evil, between nude or not.
Let’s have a look at two of our own pictures for which we have been banned on Facebook and Instagram.
Let’s have a look at two of our own pictures for which we have been banned on Facebook and Instagram.
To the #isitnude standards both photos seem non-nude and yet they got us banned. Meaning that the algorithm Facebook and Instagram are using is different than this one or that there are other (human?) checks involved as well. We’ll probably never know.
Summary
If you ask ourselves, the monkey with the big nose or RiRi, we believe we can all say that that #isitnude is not 100% waterproof. On the contrary. Our hopes that someone will invent an algorithm that can differentiate non-sexual nudity from porn are buried deep again in our back yard. But it did show us how ridiculous the whole system is.
Now we just hope that Google doesn’t ban us for all those weird searches we did today.
Now we just hope that Google doesn’t ban us for all those weird searches we did today.
Wanna give it a try as well? Visit https://isitnude.com and see if your pictures are nude or not and if you can beat the system. Send your best ones to [email protected] and if we receive enough we’ll publish them! (No Porn!)
Picture credit: The photos in this post are coming from Google and Twitter. If you find one of yourself and you don’t want it to be on our blog, let us know and we’ll remove it.
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This has to be the funniest thing ive seen for a while lolol…
Btw i found it amazingly interesting and hypocrite from both sides, that freethenipple thing …
They are Verified by Insta, the same Insta that doenst allow bare female boobs-breasts ,even if they are like from a female that doesnt even have any yet?
But at same time the freethenipple that are fighting for that not to be so , are Verified by the same company they are fighting against lol , and they dont mind being on the same platform that bans them from their goal is … its like WTF?
You could say the same thing about us… We keep complaining about Facebook and yet we have quite an active account. The problem is that those are media with which you can reach a lot of people. For free. So using their own tools to fight their ideas might be called hypocrite but we prefer the terms “rebellious” or “smart” 😀
Well its not the same really cause, freethenipple is Verified , and their username is freethenipple, something thats not allowed on the same platform they are on , lol it makes no sence.
Well u can look at it that way but i still call it hypocrite, from both sides, freethenipple and Insta. Unless being a hypocrite today means being smart?
Not to mention that out of fun i reported an “art” porn page, explicit, and i got a reply that it does not violate their rules lol …
Well that was fun!
It pegged some of mine nude 100% even though they were cropped at or just below my belt line. No genitals or butt cheeks/crack visible at all. Totally within the guidelines of all sites I’m aware of – even Facebook. Who knows, if I post any of them on FB, I might get banned. Not that I care, I really don’t go there often.
As for my crowd pics, it flagged Jack Gescheidt’s How Green Is My Island 2 (of 3) as “R – Nude (we’re 70% sure)”. (I’m in there, but very hard to see.) It flagged a group photo from a Bare Necessities nude cruise as “G – Not Nude (we’re 100% sure)”
AI has a long way to go!
Thats the thing i dont want .. AI.
That will be the end of humanity.
I am no computer geek so I don’t know about any #isitnude algorithm. All my nude pics are on my flash drive. I got banned from FB almost 5 years ago, but not for nude pics. I got banned from TUMBLR recently, because I was posting ” too much sexually charged content “( I will admit some was porn, but there were more Nudist pics than porn pics. I posted porn pics to show we CAN BE NAKED AND SEXUAL). So I don’t know about any programs that can assist us in posting non nude or decent nude pics. What I do know is there are some ( keyword : some) nudist websites out there where we can post our nudist pictures freely and without threat of censure. TRUENUDISTS.COM & NATURIST CHRISTIANS .ORG are two pro nudist sites I know of where nudists are free to post their pics. I am currently investigating MINDS.COM from which I understand there is More FREEDOM because it is independently run and funded. I am even getting buzz about MEWE. COM. Forget about algorithms & programs, search out the pro nudity/ freedom websites. They exist.
The problem with these websites is that they can’t make a difference between sexual and non-sexual nudity. The thing is, there are millions of websites available for sexual nudity. There are none that are only for non-sexual nudity.
So who is DARE TO BE BARE studios.com? They send me lists if non sexual downloadable documentaries every week. So where is INTERNATURALLY .COM? Where is THE NATURIST SOCIETY (T.N.S) who love to say they are the official spokespeople for Organised Nudist groups in general? If up & coming nudist videographers & film makers are NOT encouraged to make wholesome Nudist non sexual films, how are they going to create the websites that can promote it?
Sorry, correction: With “websites” we meant social media. MeWe for example is used a lot these days by naturists, but is also full of porn. So is Twitter. Truenudists is slightly better but it’s full with swingers.
That statement certainly does not apply to naturist-christians.org. Every image posted to the galleries requires approval from live moderators. Every post is read by the moderators so even linked images must meet the TOS.
True, see our statement above, we meant social media instead of websites.
This is why I say Nudists with media/ film experience should be encouraged to create pro non sexual websites. Why don’t AANR ( the so called representative organization) & TNS ( the other one) help fund and create more websites that can distinguish between the sexually active nudists ( we can’t ignore that they exist any longer) & the non sexually active nudists? What, is Organised nudism so behind the times we can’t even create our own stuff?
That’s a big problem we have with many federations, that they simply ignore the fact that sexual places exist. It’s “they who we don’t talk about”. It’s all caused by the fight to break the taboo that nudism is not sexual which (in our eyes) seems like it has gone too far and almost pictures nudists as asexual beings.
If I could meet you right now, I WOULD BUY YOU A BEER!! You are so correct!! Trying to make Nudists deny their sexual side is like making people wear ” purity rings” promising to “stay pure” until marriage. Many Nudists are Sexual as well as many who choose not to be sexual ( although I am certain, they have some intimate moments). We have to find the balance between those who choose to be sexual as opposed to those who are not. Ignoring Sexually active nudists makes Nudism look more ALOOF than the Textile people we are trying to inform.
Mark Boyd, you have no disagreement from me. NC.org has moderators who ensure only ” Real Nudist” pics get on their website. And besides, they are a Christian Nudist website, so they will ensure that only genuine nudist pics make it on there. But what I am saying is, just like NC.ORG other nudist websites can be created that caters to “non sexual Nudity”. All that has to happen is that they can get backing & support by the Major Nudist organizations so that Non Sexual Nudism is up there with their Sexually active counterparts. Let the Sexually active Nudists have theirs, while the Non sexual Nudists have theirs. NUDISTS ALL THE SAME, WE HAVE VARIOUS NUDISTS LIKE THE TEXTILES HAVE PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT LIFESTYLES & VARIOUS BACKGROUNDS.
The thing is that websites that go that much into a niche like naturist christians will rarely attract new naturists and this way help normalising nudity. And that’s completely fine of course. The audience of NC is people who are already naturists and Christians. With Naked Wanderings we try to reach a larger audience. People who just became nudist, people who are interested in in and even people who have never heard about it. To do so, we need mainstream (social) media.
Thank you both for respecting the difference. True, NC has a smaller market – those who may be curious/struggling/afraid – and proponents for the Christian perspective on naturism and nudity. Some Christians are new to naturism while at the same time, some naturists are new to Christianity. Either way, it is a very supportive group with many decades of knowledge and experience.
I* heartily support the attitude that Naked Wanderings brings to the lifestyle. YOU TWO ARE A VERY POSITIVE BEACON FOR NATURISM THAT THE WORLD NEEDS TO SEE. There are several links to this blog from the NC forum for a good reason – you’re GREAT!
* Full disclosure: I am the Webmaster for naturist-christians.org. I am speaking for myself, Mark A. Boyd, not on behalf of the organization.