Facebook has reversed its decision to block a famous photograph of the Vietnam War on its website. The photo is of a naked, 9-year-old Vietnamese girl and other terrified children running away from a napalm attack in South Vietnam. The napalm badly burnt her back. The iconic photograph was taken by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut and won a Pulitzer Prize for photo-journalism. However, Facebook banned the photo from its site because the child in the photo is naked. Facebook got a lot of complaints after the ban. Even the president of Norway, Erna Solberg, criticised Facebook. She said the photo was an important part of history and that Facebook was editing history by erasing the image.
Ms Solberg explained why she was so angry. She said: "They must see the difference between editing out child pornography and editing out history." She wrote on her own Facebook page: "I want my children and other children to grow up in a society where history is taught as it was." After Facebook decided to allow the photo back on its pages, a spokesperson made a comment, saying: "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 [the case of the 'Napalm Girl' photograph], we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time."
