They were protesting Facebook and Instagram, which allow photos of male nipples to be shown, but don’t allow pictures of female nipples.

The controversial stunt was arranged by the artist Spencer Tunick.

In collaboration with the National Coalition Against Censorship for their #WeTheNipple campaign, he took pictures of the nude models during a demonstration outside Manhattan’s Astor Place subway station in Manhattan.

They held up signs showing pictures of male nipples taken by Tunick as well.

Tunick said artists Andres Serrano and Paul Mpagi Sepuya, radio host Andy Cohen, Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Tunick himself donated pictures of their nipples for the signs.

“The nudity ban prevents many artists from sharing their work online”

#WeTheNipple website

In April, Tunick put out a call for models to join him in New York for a demonstration.

The location was kept top secret until the last moment on Sunday.

They gathered outside the Alamo on Astor Place, opposite the headquarters of Facebook and Instagram.

The protest came about after the social media platforms banned photographic representations of the nude body.

Both sites only allow nudity in depictions of paintings and sculpture.

But many artists use social media to spread their work and have attacked the move.

According to #WeTheNipple, social media “has dramatically increased artists’ ability to reach and build their audiences. Unless their medium is photography and their subject is the body.”

It went on: “The nudity ban prevents many artists from sharing their work online. It particularly harms artists whose work focuses on their own bodies, including queer and gender-nonconforming artists, and the bodies of those in their communities.”

#WeTheNipple and Tunick are calling on both social media sites to “create an exception to their nudity restrictions to allow for art in the medium of photography”.

This isn’t the first time Tunick has created a stir with his mass nude stunts.

In April this year, a crowd of 1,300 stripped off in the Spanish city of Valencia to pose nude.

While in July last year, hundreds braved chilly conditions for Tunick’s naked photoshoot in Melbourne, Australia.

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