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Will Facebook change its censorship policy after the removal of the image of “napalm girl”?
Will Facebook change its censorship policy after the removal of the image of “napalm girl”?
24/9/16
Facebook is one
of the tools that the West uses to propaganda for its policies, especially what
they call “the values of democracy”. However, the real values of human mankind
always belong to the entire world or the bigger part. Therefore, the sins of the
US
and other countries in Vietnam War have never been disappeared in the mind of
international community
In June 8, 1972,
9-year- old Kim Phuc had to run out of her house after a South Vietnamese plane
dropped its flaming napalm on civillians. The terrified girl had ripped off her
burning clothes while fleeing. The photo of Nick Ut posed when Kim phuc and her
brothers were running on the road, named “Terror of War” has become an iconic image
of a child victim of the Vietnam War.
However, last few
weeks, Facebook deleted multiple copies of the image by Nick Ut and suspended
user accounts after a Norwegian newspaper editor posted the picture as part of
a series on war photography. The editor-in- chief of the paper, Aftenposten,
decried the move by Facebook in an open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Dear
Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply with your
requirement to remove this picture,” he wrote.
The move by Facebook
has caused controversy internationally over its censorship and the freedom of
speech.
Recently, Facebook
has made a u-turn over its decision and announced that:
“After hearing
from our community, we looked again at how our Community Standards were applied
in this case. 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. In this case, we recognize the history and global importance of
this image in documenting a particular moment in time.
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.
We will also
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. We are always looking to improve our policies
to make sure they both promote free expression and keep our community safe, and
we will be engaging with publishers and other members of our global community
on these important questions going forward.”
This is not the
first time Facebook deleted sensitive contents on its site. Last year, it
deleted the images of Arab Prophet Mohammed after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist
attack. At the begging, they blamed their move due to the request of a Turkey lawyer.
However, after that, Facebook had admitted its move originated from its CEO’s
support to French and Charlie Hebdo./.
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All comments [ 10 ]
It's a right decision, Facebook must respect the history
The image has shown the pain of the war that Vietnamese has been suffering for long time
the international community is always on the right side, fighting for the real values of the human mankind.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has admitted that Facebook erred in removing the historic photo of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack in Vietnam in 1972
the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time
Facebook gets it wrong when they censor such pictures. It limits the freedom of speech
the "napalm girl" is an iconic photo and a part of our history.
Facebook had learned from the mistake.
Vietnam War is long over, but it has been teaching us the lesson about the meaning of peace
Zuckerberg has been abusing his power over the social media site that has become a key distributer of news around the globe
Your comments