Banned from Facebook for Posting Pictures of Her Terminally Ill Son

[pokerfan]

To honor the memory of their son's short life, the Walkers sought out help from a non profit organization called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, who sent a professional photographer to the hospital to capture on film the short life of the little baby Grayson.



Wanting to share with her friends and family the little life that had come and gone, Heather Walker posted the photos to her Facebook profile. A tiny newborn in a knit hat, without a knit hat, in his mother's arms, in his father's. All perfectly appropriate birthday images.

So, why did Facebook remove them from Heather's profile? And subsequently, after Heather reposted this pictures and got her friends and family to contact Facebook, she was banned from the site entirely.

http://gizmodo.com/5911641/posting-pictures-of-her-terminally-ill-son-will-got-grieving-mother-banned-from-facebook

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Wha-?

Why would they do that?

[ZombieHorde]

2. Facebook is weird to me. I don't understand it. nt

[pokerfan]

4. It's like some kind of weird cult

I've never had any interest in joining.

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. Yes, it's a "weird cult" wherein my brothers (in CA) and I (in TX) are able to exchange

photos of our children. Creeeeeepy.

[pokerfan]

7. As long as it's not a terminally ill child, i guess (nt)

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. And now we're back to the subject at hand.

[jwirr]

3. The FB decision is totally wrong. My family is on FB for one reason and one reason only - to share

events with family that live all over the country. If I had been this child's family I would have wanted to see the pics.

[RKP5637]

6. I've always avoided FB like the plague. This decision by them is

ridiculous.

[rocktivity]

9. "Facebook's...standards page lists nine types of content that may be deemed objectionable...

Last edited Sun Feb 15, 2015, 05:05 PM - Edit history (4)

Violence/Threats
Self-Harm
Bullying and Harassment
Hate Speech
Graphic Violence
Nudity/Pornography
Identity and Privacy
Intellectual Property
Phishing/Spam

Which category Grayson's photos fall into is anyone's guess."

Hmm, maybe Facebook is worried about the "professional photographer" wanting to be paid by them in some kind of intellectual property claim, or they consider the mention of the nonprofit organization to be free advertising. Now that they're in the stock market, I guess Facebook has to be more cautious about that sort of thing.

Fortunately, YouTube doesn't seem to mind people paying tribute to late or challenged children.

rocktivity

[pokerfan]

12. At this point, we can only guess

since they don't seem to want to tell her what she did.

[tammywammy]

10. Strange, I know of a woman that has posted pictures taken like this on FB

She had two stillborns and has pictures of both her sons. Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep took the photos of her second son (they weren't around for her first son) and the pictures are beautiful.

[BlueIris]

11. What a vile, callous thing for FB to do.

Also, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a perfectly excellent organization that deserves more recognition.

[Ian David]

13. This will be a lead story on Fox "News" tomorrow and will be called "Anti-Life." n/t

[rocktivity]

14. UPDATE: Facebook Regrets the error

From Gizmodo:
Facebook contacted us today with the below statement:

"Upon investigation, we concluded the photo does not violate our guidelines and was removed in error.

"Facebook is a place where almost a billion people share more than 300 million photos a day. Our dedicated User Operations Team reviews millions of pieces of this content a day to help keep Facebook safe for all ages.

"Our policies are enforced by a team of reviewers in several offices across the globe. This team looks at hundreds of thousands of reports every week, and as you might expect, occasionally, we make a mistake and remove a piece of content we shouldn't have.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the family and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience."

From The UK Daily Mail:
A spokesman for Facebook denied that Heather was ever banned from the site, and said in a statement:

"On rare occasions, a photo reported to us may be too graphic too be permitted on the site. In these cases, the person who posted the photo is contacted, and the photos are removed.

"We strive to fit the needs of a diverse community while respecting everyone's interest in sharing content that is important to them.

"It is important to note that any photos that are removed – whether inappropriately or in accordance with our policies – are only done so after being brought to our attention by other Facebook users who report them as violations, and when such reports are subsequently reviewed by Facebook."

rocktivity