After banning several pieces of classic art and photography over the last year, Facebook’s notoriously strict censorship policy has struck again. The social network has reportedly blocked a photograph of a nude, 16th-century statue of Neptune, claiming that the image is too “explicitly sexual” to be displayed on the site. 

The statue in question stands in the Italian city of Bologna, and was uploaded by Facebook user Elisa Barbari. She claims that the picture – which shows the stacked naked sea god holding a trident – was deleted by the site after it was shown to be “concentrating unnecessarily” on the human body. 

“The use of the image was not approved because it violates Facebook’s guidelines on advertising,” the notice reportedly read. “It presents an image with content that is explicitly sexual and which shows to an excessive degree the body... The use of images or video of nude bodies or plunging necklines is not allowed, even if the use is for artistic or educational reasons.”

Barbari responded by posting another photo of Neptune from behind, along with the caption: “Yes to Neptune, no to censorship.”

“How can a work of art, our very own statue of Neptune, be the object of censorship?” she mused after it was removed. “Back in the 1950s, during celebrations for schoolchildren graduating, they used to cover up Neptune. Maybe Facebook would prefer the statue to be dressed again.”

Facebook has since backtracked on the decision, revealing in a statement that the block was an “error”. “Our team processes millions of advertising images each week, and in some instances we incorrectly prohibit ads,” they said. “This image does not violate our ad policies.”

Despite the site being criticised for its lack of control over “fake news” (an issue that makes it at least partly accountable for the election of Donald Trump), its image censoring policy seems to have the opposite problem. The stringent software has been widely criticised for its decision to block Pulitzer-winning photography (the iconic “Napalm Girl” picture), classic art, and – in one really bizarre example – a “suggestive” portrait of a woman eating an ice cream.