Less than 24 hours after sending the email, Facebook unilaterally deleted the article, and the image, from Aftenposten’s Facebook page.
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Facebook has u-turned on a decision to censor the iconic “napalm girl” photo taken during the Vietnam war amid increasing pressure from the global media.
Captured by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nick Ut of the Associated Press, the image of screaming children running from a napalm attack became an instant symbol of the devastation of the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. When Egeland subsequently posted his shocked reaction to the removal of the “napalm girl” photo, he found his account suspended.
Several Norwegian government members followed Solberg’s lead and posted the photo on their Facebook pages.
“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 made a decision to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed”, the California-based company said.
However Mr Hansen said that Mr Zuckerberg was “the world’s most powerful editor” as Facebook was “offering us a great channel for distributing our content”.
An active social media user, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg defied Facebook early Friday by posting the photograph, which the United States behemoth says violates its nudity rules.
“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 made a decision to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed”, Facebook said in a statement. “What they do in removing such pictures, whatever their reasons, is to edit our common history”, remarked Solberg. “While we recognise that this photo is iconic, it’s hard to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others”, a Facebook spokesperson said in an email to AFP.
“I hope Facebook will take advantage of this opportunity to review its editorial policy”, she added. “It contributes to limiting the freedom of expression”, she wrote.
Facebook has responded, both by reinstating the photo and offering reasoning for why the deletion occurred in the first place.
A Norwegian newspaper that dedicated its front-page story to an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg after Facebook censored an iconic historical photograph has had its voice heard. “In addition, we reserve our rights to this powerful image”.
“I am upset, disappointed – well, in fact even afraid – of what you are about to do to a mainstay of our democratic society”, he said. “So we’ll have to wait and see what the result would be”, Espen Egil Hansen, the Editor-in-Chief of Aftenposten said.
A study by Pew Research Centre this year found 44 per cent of United States adults get their news on Facebook.
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And earlier this year, a Danish lawmaker also complained that Facebook had removed her picture of the Copenhagen statue of the Little Mermaid because of its nudity rules.
