Tommy Lee’s nude photo on Instagram fuels debate over platform’s censorship double standard

Rocker Tommy Lee’s penis was once again available for the public to see but this time it appears to be his choice.

The Mötley Crüe drummer, 59, posted a full-frontal nude photo on Instagram and Facebook Thursday. “Ooooopppsss,” he captioned the post.

The photo, showing a naked Lee sitting on the edge of a bathtub, has since been removed from both social media platforms. It’s unclear, however, whether he or the social media sites took the photo down.

While the post was online, Lee’s wife Brittany Furlan, commented on the picture with “OH MY GOD.”

Lee’s nude photo was online for nearly four hours, according to Newsweek, and consequently sparked outrage from people calling out a double standard with Meta-owned social media platforms’ community guidelines.

Facebook, Instagram’s community guideline censorship debate
Instagram’s community guidelines restrict content depicting “sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks.”

“We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don’t allow nudity on Instagram,” community guidelines state.

Instagram now allows photos of female nipples in the context of “breastfeeding, birth giving and after-birth moments, health-related situations” as well as nudity for the purpose of protesting and nudity in paintings and sculptures.

The delay in the removal of Lee’s nude photo caused outrage on Twitter questioning why it took so long for it to be removed.

“Didn’t want to really wake up to a picture of Tommy Lee’s (expletive),” user @lovefromloz said. “@instagram literally has the clearest double standard among their community guidelines.”

User @UnbrokenFate pointed out how Lee’s photo received praise while revealing photos of Britney Spears have people questioning her mental stability.

“So Tommy Lee can post a literal photo with his whole (expletive) out on Instagram and y’all love it, but when Britney makes posts nude (BUT STILL COVERING HERSELF) she’s crazy? Make it make sense. The double standard is so apparent,” the tweet read.

User @jlalibs on Twitter called Lee’s photo a publicity stunt and brought up the unfair treatment of sex workers on social media platforms.

“This will just be seen as a publicity stunt (which it is) but the shitty thing is that Tommy Lee has 1.4m followers on IG and that image is still up four hours later where sex workers who don’t even post nudity get shadow banned for just living,” @jlalibs wrote.Tommy Lee’s previous nude scandal involving Pamela Anderson
This isn’t the first time Lee’s nude image was made available for strangers to see.

In 1996, a private sex tape of Lee and his former wife, “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson, was stolen and sold to the public.

The tape was stolen from the pair’s Malibu home by an electrician Rand Gauthier, who was fired from a renovation job despite being owed $20,000 that his clients refused to pay, according to a Rolling Stone report from 2014.

The two faced lengthy legal battles, eventually settling a lawsuit in December 1997 against the Internet Entertainment Group, which posted the tape online, according to Rolling Stone.

After a tumultuous relationship, the couple, who had two children together, divorced in 1998.

Hulu’s limited series titled “Pam and Tommy” details the viral sensation and the emotional toll it took on the couple.

The show received 10 Emmy nominations including, Outstanding Limited Series and acting nominations for Lily James who played Anderson, Sebastian Stan who played Lee, and Seth Rogan who played Gauthier.