Facebook on Friday reversed its decision to remove postings of an iconic 1972 image of a naked, screaming girl running from a napalm attack in Vietnam, after a Norwegian revolt against the tech giant.
Protests in Norway started last month after Facebook deleted the Pulitzer Prize-winning image by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut from a Norwegian author’s page, saying it violated its rules on nudity.
The revolt escalated on Friday when Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg posted the image on her profile and Facebook deleted that too. The brouhaha is the latest instance in which Facebook’s often opaque process for deciding what stays and what goes on its network has spurred controversy.
“It’s an interesting dilemma because you’ve got a newsworthy historical image that has been published by traditional news media that was effectively censored by a social network,” said Steve Jones, University of Illinois at Chicago communications professor.
Initially, Facebook stood by the decision, saying it was difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others. But late Friday it said it would allow sharing of the photo.
“In this case, we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time,” Facebook said in a statement. “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.”
Politicians of all stripes, journalists and regular Norwegians had backed Solberg’s decision to share the image. The prime minister told Norwegian broadcaster NRK she was pleased with Facebook’s change of heart and that it shows social media users’ opinions matter. “To speak up and say we want change, it matters and it works. And that makes me happy,” she said. AP
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