OSLO: Facebook faced outrage on Friday for repeatedly deleting a historic Vietnam War photo, including in a post by Norway’s premier, which appears to be the first case of the social network censoring a government head.
An active social media user, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg defied Facebook early on Friday by posting the photograph, which the US behemoth says violates its nudity rules.
The 1972 picture of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack was taken by photographer Nick Ut Cong Huynh for Associated Press and is considered one of the war’s defining images. It was honoured with the Pulitzer Prize. Solberg’s post was taken down several hours later, deleted by Facebook, she said.
“What Facebook is doing by deleting photos like this, as good as their intentions are, is to edit our common history,” she wrote in a later post.
Late on Friday, Facebook said it would reinstate the censored photo.
The affair began several weeks ago after Norwegian author Tom Egeland published a post about war photos, illustrated by the iconic picture. It was promptly deleted by Facebook.
Norwegians rose to his defence and published the photo, posts which Facebook also deleted in line with its rules barring nudity. Earlier, a Facebook spokesperson said in an email to AFP: “While we recognise that this photo is iconic, it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others.”
{{/usCountry}}Norwegians rose to his defence and published the photo, posts which Facebook also deleted in line with its rules barring nudity. Earlier, a Facebook spokesperson said in an email to AFP: “While we recognise that this photo is iconic, it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others.”
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