Rocker Nikki Sixx Battles Facebook

The Motley Crue bassist feels his art is being censored by the social network site

When it comes to Facebook, half-naked teens are fine, but artful photography is forbidden - at least according to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx.

The rocker is accusing the social network site of censorship after they banned him from posting excerpts from his upcoming memoir/photography book "This is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography, and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx."

The images included nude photos of overweight women and transgender men.

"So I posted this nude picture and it was deleted by Facebook." Sixx tells Spinner.com. "And I went, 'Oh, you can't put art on Facebook?'" 

Sixx also blasts Facebook for banning the photos and punishing fans for choosing to promote the album cover of his newest project - SixxA.M. - because it features a photograph of a badly-burned woman also shot by Sixx. The image, which accompanied a single called "Rules and Regulations," prompted Facebook to send Sixx another "cease and desist"-type message.

"I looked around Facebook and I see half-naked teenagers, and stuff way worse than my stuff, so I posted what they said to me about the 'Rules and Regulations' [image] and immediately 250,000 people changed their profile picture to that photo. So everyone's going, 'Why don't you change yours?' and I was worried they were going to delete my account, but finally I just posted it."

According to Sixx, Facebook did not remove his profile, but did shut down many of his fans'.

"They didn't delete my account but they deleted James Michael and a number of fans," says Sixx. "And they weren't doing anything to me. So, eventually, I just thought this was so ridiculous and I posted half-naked pictures of myself and nobody's complained."

"So I'm asking where is this at? Is this censorship? Is this a double standard? What's happening? I think [the point] is seeing where we're at socially."

Selected Reading: PopEater, Spinner, Toronto Sun

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