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Josh's avatar

I think the only way this is going to be resolved is if other countries pop up their own social media sites. Although it is global Meta follows the social norms and laws of the US since it is a US company. If social media company where is too he started in a country like Germany, where they have very different attitudes when it comes to nudity - where over the counter Naturist magazines were popular into the early 2000s featuring families and children, and today casual nudity is still seen in movies and TV of people of all ages, and it's not used for shock value or pornographic, pus, the country is long stance in FKK - then as Naturist we would have a free and open way to express ourselves and promote the movement, as the social media site would be under German laws and culture norms.

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Charles Daney's avatar

I respect Stéphane tremendously, but the problem here is far more extensive than what affects either art or naturism. Most social media are simply businesses established to make a profit, or at least cover their costs. Many countries (except for the numerous strongly authoritarian ones) don't have open and popular social media, but of course they do make laws that may or may not respect naturism, or even legitimate art - or any number of other categories that aren't "mainstream". Ultimately, what determines the sorts of speech (or visual media like art) that are allowed is what the populace is willing to tolerate. (Think Courbet's controversial painting L'Origine du monde.)

Naturists, of course, want to communicate their message in as many ways as possible (social media, news media, cinema, etc.) But inevitably they are frustrated by the limitations of the country or region they seek to communicate in. The ease with which communication is possible varies from the transparency of clean air to the murkiness of deep seas.

There are two approaches that naturists can use to get their message out. One, of course, is to operate their own social media. Until recent times that typically meant books and magazines (also vulnerable to censorship). There have been online media that naturists have used - for at least 40 years in fact. (Things like CompuServe and rec.nude.) Some such media currently are specifically for naturists to communicate among themselves - and that's very useful. Many more existing naturist organizations should be using these, but few do to any real extent because of expense and lack of technical skills. Briitish Naturism is very good at this. But hardly any others are, at least in the English-speaking world.

There's a second way, however. Commercial social media that aren't hostile to naturism now exist - Bluesky being the most recent and best example. To avoid "offending" people who are averse to nudity of any sort, Bluesky "labels" posts that contain non-sexual nudity, so people can choose to avoid it. (I think there's a separate category for porn, but don't know for sure, since it doesn't interest me.) Eventually, Bluesky will need to use advertising or "premium" features to pay the bills, but what that will be isn't clear just now. Also emerging is something similar to Bluesky - called the "Fediverse". Online socializing occurs via interconnected systems that are generally operated by private individuals - but could also be used effectively by naturist organizations. Mastodon may be the earliest and best-known example. If the "fediverse" becomes popular, individual naturists could discuss naturism among themselves, or with any of the general public who might be interested. This could be a good tool for naturist parks and resorts to publicize themselves and facilitate communication among members and visitors.

Naturists need to take their future into their own hands. Griping about the hostility of ugly things like Facebook will be of little help. Tools like emerging online social media should play a large role. The problem is presenting naturism to the general public - people who might not ever realize it might interest them. Facebook and its ilk won't work - because they refuse to. Ideally, individual naturists - given existing and forthcoming tools - should take on this responsibility - but too few are willing to be open about social nudity.

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