Photographer Innocently Posts about 'Shooting a Few Christians,' Gets Banned from Facebook

Photographer Innocently Posts about 'Shooting a Few Christians,' Gets Banned from Facebook

As photographers, we're subject to endless jokes regarding the word “shooting.” But one London photographer found himself faced with a Facebook ban for a post about “shooting a bunch of Christians.”

Nicolas Chinardet revealed he was banned from Facebook for 24 hours after writing a post in which he detailed his plans to take pictures at a central London church.

Less than half an hour after the innocent status went live, the photographer says his account was suspended even though it had been evident he is a photographer and was referring to photographing people. With no apparent way to appeal the ban – something he claims has a direct effect on his business – he took to Twitter to vent his frustrations.

He tweeted:

I've just been blocked from Facebook for 24hrs for posting that I was "shooting a few Christians".... I'm a f****** photographer... no way to appeal or explain.

Speaking to The Mirror, he said the project involved taking pictures of an LGBT Christian group for a magazine feature on Gay Pride.

The news probably didn’t sit well with Chinardet – as he has been policed by Facebook before. The social network has previously removed some of his nightclub imagery for being “too sexually explicit.”

He now claims his entire page has been deleted – not just unpublished – and he has lost his following. The Mirror reached out to Facebook for a comment.

Image credit: Ricardo Almagro on Pexels.

Jack Alexander's picture

A 28-year-old self-taught photographer, Jack Alexander specialises in intimate portraits with musicians, actors, and models.

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23 Comments

The liberal political agenda run amuck. :(

24hr ban = all your business pages got deleted? Never heard that happen before. I may be old fashioned, but if I made a joke and it got me banned for 24 hrs, you either know why (and next time are smarter abt your jokes) or you are missing a bolt or two. This person used a typical thing to try and get famous. Claiming he lost his business pages and followers doesn't even make sense unless he's just over the top reacting and not just waiting till the 24hrs is up.

This is the land of Internet where everyone lies.

I doubt Chinardt is telling the whole truth about what happened.

It's the world we live in. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That's the U.K. for you. The land where freedom of speech is a myth.

No matter where you stay, freedom of speech is always a myth...

You think the FB algorithm is a proxy for freedoms in the UK?

Cool story bro.

How is that relevant? The 'policing algorithm' is by Facebook, which is American, and they can surly choose their own policy - not that I'm agreeing with it though. Moderating hundreds of millions can't be an easy task, but I do believe the strictness should be loosened a bit.

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with a company. They write their own rules and you agree to abide by them as a user of the community. It's pretty straight forward.

Photographers would get the joke, not the rest 99%.. the whole world can't bend for your joke. It's happened to froknows photo, he was pissed as well... Not sure why. Can't go around in a family theme park with "I shoot raw" and expect the whole world to get the joke. Inside jokes should stay inside.

This is up there with a white girl on YouTube saying she nearly died, but then it's about her coffee taking 7 minutes to be prepared.

People are stupid; Poe's Law is a thing; and you should be more judicious with your use of puns on Facebook (unless of course he really didn't know, but he cannot be that stupid).

Pro tip: FB is run by algorithms, and the algorithm doesn't care that it's obviously "innocent".

Never heard of Poe's Law before. Thanks, although I'm not sure when I'd ever use it.

Me neither. That's why I seldom engage in internet discussions.

I think that the real issue here is that with the huge amount of money Facebook makes, they're still not making enough to allow a review process.

It's irrelevant if the photographer lost business or not. What is relevant is that it _could_ impact on any business that relies on that social media platform. Don't like the word "shoot", cool. What about other words that may be added to the algorithm in the future?

sugested new word for algorithm: Zuckerberg

Well, there go all my wedding photographer jokes about ________ a bunch of christians, jews, catholics, muslims, hindus, sikhs, ...hmm, did I miss any? Nigerians? Nigerian weddings are awesome! Love the bright colors...

The “photographer” should be banned for being retarded, really. His use of the English language was pathetic...

Is this what things are now?
Have to pussyfoot around everything we say because Facebook says so? Fuck away off!
I pose children, make them smile, then I shoot them. Then I show their mommies my raw file and we see what develops. 🖕

Lool, tell that to your mum 😂.. it's hilarious

I know what LGBT is and I know what Christian is but I don't know what a LGBT Christian is. Anyone?

Not surprised in the least. We live in a society that has a considerable number of members that wake up each day looking for a way to be offended. There's a reason why more and more comedians have taken college campus shows off of their schedules. The Offense Industry is a subset of the PC Movement. At some point, there will be enough people to say, "enough!" I'll probably not see it since I'm a geezer, but it's going to happen.

In 1994, I did a lot of "drive-by shootings" when I was in Iowa and traveling. At first, I kept a boxed film camera in my van to photograph interesting scenes while I was driving; it's almost like a rangefinder experience since I could see the overall scene with my left eye and drive. Later, I used my Canon A-1 with the lens set at infinity focus.
But "drive-by shooting" almost sounds like it is gang related.