I want to share some thoughts about expression and community standards on Facebook.
This week, a Norwegian writer named Tom Egeland shared a photo called "The Terror of War" on Facebook. It's a famous image of a naked 9-year-old girl named Kim Phúc running away from a napalm attack during the Vietnam War that won a Pulitzer Prize.
When it was first published, "Terror of War" played an important role in changing public perception about the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Over the... past 50 years, it's become an iconic image. But because it depicts a naked child, we initially removed Tom's post -- and other posts that shared the same photo -- for violating our community standards.
Facebook has community standards to keep people safe and create a positive experience on our platform. In the vast majority of cases, these policies work well.
Sometimes, however, the global and historical importance of a photo like "Terror of War" outweighs the importance of keeping nudity off Facebook.
That's why, after hearing from our community, we're restoring this particular photo across our platform. It will take time to adjust our systems, but "Terror of War" should be available for sharing in the coming days.
These decisions aren't easy. In many cases, there's no clear line between an image of nudity or violence that carries global and historic significance and one that doesn't. Some images may be offensive in one part of the world and acceptable in another, and even with a clear standard, it's hard to screen millions of posts on a case-by-case basis every week.
Still, we can do better. In this case, we tried to strike a difficult balance between enabling expression and protecting our community and ended up making a mistake. But one of the most important things about Facebook is our ability to listen to our community and evolve, and I appreciate everyone who has helped us make things right. We'll keep working to make Facebook an open platform for all ideas.
