Facebook is facing renewed criticism after its software appears to have blocked a photograph of a 16th-century statue of Neptune that stands in the Piazza del Nettuno in the Italian city of Bologna, claiming it is “sexually explicit”.

Local writer Elisa Barbari had chosen the statue, which shows Neptune naked and holding a trident, to illustrate her Facebook page “Stories, curiosities and views of Bologna.” But the Nettuno picture fell foul of the social media giant’s privacy policies, the Daily Telegraph reported.