After receiving content strikes from Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for posting artwork depicting nudity, the Vienna Tourist Board is turning to OnlyFans to highlight the explicit works of art on display in the city’s museums.
On its OnlyFans account, the city’s tourism board freely posts images of artwork by Egon Schiele, Richard Gerstl, Koloman Moser and Amedeo Modigliani — whose paintings have previously been labeled as inappropriate and “pornographic” by conventional social media sites.
OnlyFans is known for allowing creators to post sexually explicit content for their paying subscribers, and early subscribers to ViennaTouristBoard are eligible for a city transportation card or a free ticket to view the works “in the flesh” at one of the city’s museums, according to the tourism board.
In a statement on its website, Vienna’s tourism board said that the city has been home to artists “whose works pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in art and society at the time.”
The art that was censored over 100 years ago continues to be censored online as social media platforms crack down on explicit content, according to the site.
“And the battle against censorship still rages on: with the rise of social media, bans like this these are back in headlines once again,” the statement continues. “Major social media channels like Instagram and Facebook have nudity and ‘lewd’ content firmly in their sights.”
The move comes after social media accounts for some Austrian museums, such as the Albertina and the Leopold Museum, were flagged or suspended for posting artwork containing nudity.
The Albertina was suspended, and later banned, from TikTok in July for posting videos featuring the works of artist and photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, whose subjects were often nude women.
Instagram’s content policy says that “nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures” are allowed, but in 2019 the platform flagged the museum’s post featuring a painting by Peter Paul Rubens as a community violation.
In 2018, Vienna’s Natural History Museum posted an image of the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf figurine, which may have symbolized motherhood or fertility. Facebook deemed the post pornographic and removed it. In September, the platform also flagged the Leopold Museum’s post, featuring a painting by Koloman Moser, as “potentially pornographic.”
Spokespeople for TikTok and Facebook, which owns Instagram, did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Helena Hartlauer, a Vienna tourist board spokesperson, also did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
However, Hartlauer told the Guardian in a recent interview that it’s “almost impossible” for the museums to use nude artwork in any promotional materials.
An exhibition at the Albertina featuring portrait artist Amedeo Modigliani, for example, is difficult to promote because of the explicit nature of Modigliani’s work. The tourism board ironically faced challenges trying to promote its OnlyFans account on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
She said that Onlyfans “finally” provides “a way to show these things.”
“OnlyFans shook up social media by giving creators a platform where they could freely share nude and pornographic content with subscribers,” the tourism website wrote in its statement.
The platform did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment regarding the Vienna Tourism Board’s decision.
Though OnlyFans is credited with pioneering a sex-positive social media platform, the company has waffled on continuing to allow sexually explicit content. In August, OnlyFans said it planned to phase out sexually explicit content to appease requests from financial institutions. The site said it would continue to allow nudity, but it didn’t clarify the difference between that and sexually explicit content.
Following backlash from both creators and subscribers, OnlyFans backtracked and said it would not change its policy allowing sexually explicit content in “support” of its “diverse creator community.”
“OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators,” the platform tweeted.
Vienna’s move to using OnlyFans is an effort to promote tourism to the city as travel restrictions ease worldwide. But it’s also to raise awareness of the modern censorship of art, Hartlauer said.
“We just want to question: do we need these limitations?” Hartlauer continued. “This marketing initiative of ours is not the ultimate solution for this problematic relationship between the art world and social media … but we want to stand up for our values and our beliefs.”
Dennis Romero and Kalhan Rosenblatt contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
