A photo of a young couple sloppily making out pops onscreen. It’s gross, but not against the rules, so Axten punches a key to judge the image appropriate. Next up: a young woman in panties only, covering her breasts with her hands. “That’s pretty close,” Axten says, pondering the image. There’s nothing arbitrary about his judgments: at Facebook, they have developed semiformal policies like the Fully Exposed Butt Rule, the Crack Rule and the Nipple Rule. In this photo there’s no visible areola, he decides, so it stays.

Newsweek offers a moment in the life of Facebook’s “internal porn police.” Advertisers fear smut they say, which is halfway valid logic: but why not just let users dictate who gets to see what, Flickr or LiveJournal style? Rather than have a fresh-out-of-Stanford boy hitting delete on my tits, I could opt to filter them out of my mother’s sight.

(Also my inner sixteen year old is weeping runny black eyeliner tears to see one of them sporting a 2600 tshirt.)