Facebook reverses move to censor 'napalm girl' photo (original) (raw)

Facebook has backtracked on its decision to censor an iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl escaping a napalm bombing, after its block on the historic image sparked outrage, including from Norway's leader.

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Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Facebook was editing history by erasing images of the 1972 "napalm girl" photograph.

The social media giant has now changed its stance but has stopped short of apologising, saying the image was flagged for violating standards regarding inappropriate posts.

"Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal, so we have decided to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed," a spokesperson for Facebook said.

Ms Solberg posted the photograph on her Facebook page on Friday after the company had deleted it from sites of Norwegian authors and the daily Aftenposten, helping to bring the week-long controversy to a head.

Facebook had also removed the photo from the page of Phan Thi Kim Phuc who had been photographed as a girl.

On Friday, Norway's biggest daily Aftenposten dedicated the front page of its print edition to the photo, and published a two-page open letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Taken by photographer Nick Ut Cong Huynh for the Associated Press, the 1972 picture of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack is considered one of the war's defining images.

It was honoured with the Pulitzer Prize.

Norwegians protest censorship by publishing photo

The affair began several weeks ago after Norwegian author Tom Egeland published a post about war photos, illustrated by the picture — and Facebook promptly deleted it.

Norwegians rose to his defence by publishing the photo, posts that Facebook also deleted in line with its rules barring nudity.

Egeland expressed delight in a Twitter message written in Norwegian after the Facebook about-face.

"Now I'm happy! To all who said 'there's no point,' yes there is a point," the tweet read in part.

Ms Solberg told the BBC she was a "happy Prime Minister".

"It shows that using social media can make [a] political change even in social media," she said.

In its latest statement, Facebook said it had reversed course "after hearing from our community," and examining how its "Community Standards" were applied.

"An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our Community Standards, and in some countries might even qualify as child pornography," Facebook said in a statement.

But Facebook said it was allowing the picture to be posted on the world's largest social network and would "adjust our review mechanisms to permit sharing of the image going forward".

"It will take some time to adjust these systems but the photo should be available for sharing in the coming days," the statement added.

"We are always looking to improve our policies to make sure they both promote free expression and keep our community safe."

Facebook 'tramples on the freedom to inform'

This is not the first time Facebook has been accused of a lack of sensitivity in how it enforces its rules on appropriate content. The company has in the past blocked seminal artworks because they featured nudity.

Facebook is due to go on trial in France, where a schoolteacher accused it of censorship for blocking his account after he posted a photo of a painting by 19th-century master Gustave Courbet called L'Origine du monde (The Origin of the World), which depicts a woman's vagina.

And earlier this year, a Danish politician also complained that Facebook had removed her picture of the Copenhagen statue of the Little Mermaid because of its nudity rules.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) depicted Facebook's censorship of the Vietnam War photo as a grave violation of freedom of information.

"The 'decency' rules used by this social network are so restrictive that they trample on the freedom to inform," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in a statement.

"We call on Facebook to add respect for the journalistic values of photos to these rules, and to ensure that their rules are never more severe than national legislations."

AFP