Facebook says never mind
And now Facebook has admitted it was being ridiculous.
On Friday, following widespread criticisms from news organizations and media experts across the globe, Facebook reversed its decision, saying in a statement to the Guardian: “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.”
The statement continued: “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.”
It said it plans to do better in future.
So that image can stay because it’s “iconic,” i.e. it’s old and we’ve all seen it a thousand times. But if it had been taken today it would not yet be “iconic” and could safely be censored in order to “protect the community,” whatever that could possibly mean.
Documentation of the past is safe. What about documentation of the present?
Quite. That’s why Facebook needs to rethink the whole thing, not just back down on this one occasion.
So Facebook got burned again? Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Pity on the African Internet though. Better luck next time.
not ‘child pornography’; it’s war pornography. Lot of it about lately.