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Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

theguardian.com

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Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#71

Post by pwg »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #48
samfisher83 wrote: post #27

Maybe the censorship team was too young know the significance of the picture. I am guessing average Facebook employee is under 30. Probably younger than that. Vietnam war is over 40 years old, most American students learned about it and knew that picture, but I don't know how much Vietnam war is taught in other countries. It might have been a combination of age and where the person grew up that contributed to deletin…

"Most American students learned about it and knew that picture..." I'm 38: We didn't learn much about the Vietnam war, honestly. The sections on everything from the 50's onward were very short, and sometimes glossed over due to time constraints. I think we had one teacher tell us that it was simply because not enough time had passed since it happened, which always seemed ridiculous to me. It is kinda like we knew it…

49 here, and High-school history class 'finished' not much past WWII/Korean War era. Very little if any touching of the Vietnam war. And at that time it was the same reason. End of school year arrived, and that was as far forward in time as the teacher had achieved. And so that was that.

Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#72

Post by Cthulhu_ »

ythl wrote: post #47
seren wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find interesting is that, de facto , global services like Facebook, are following and imposing to the rest of world the American cultural norms. It could have been a worse country, but that is a new twist on soft power (or at least in a new medium and in a new form).

Yeah because all of Europe sucks at making good web tech for some reason. Seriously - look at the top 100 websites in the world; not a single one produced by Europe[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites Edit: Downvote all you want. I'll redact my statement if someone can show me that Europe does not suck at making web tech. But you can't, because Europe is not competitive in the web tech…

It's a bit skewed to assume e.g. Google produces everything in the US; Google and many of those companies are multinationals, with both legal and development entities all over the world, including Europe. There's also the fact that a lot of European-based startups incorporate themselves in the US because of legal issues - it's easier to sell a US company's software in Europe than the other way around. A lot of US companies are required by law to only use US-made software, too. Probably leftovers from the Cold War.

Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#73

Post by alanwatts »

maxxxxx wrote: post #2

I always find it interesting that no level of violence is deemed inappropriate in the US but nudity has to be avoided at any cost.

Perhaps this phenomenon is a result of the religious imperialism which first reigned over the New World.

Nudity was highly sacrilegious for los conquistadores de las americas, but the violence they used was not.

Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#74

Post by DanBC »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #36
tdb7893 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair it is child nudity in this case, which has different legal ramifications in some situations. Also the views on nudity vary a lot from person to person in the US.

Actually it's child violence . The nudity is incidental.

All the messages from Facebook seem pretty clear that it's the nudity in the image that's the problem. Have you seen something else from Facebook claiming it's the violence?

EDIT: Here's the orignal post, which contains an image from Facebook. http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kommentar/Dear-Mark-I-am-...

That image says:

> We place limitations on the display of nudity to limit the exposure of the different people using our platform to sensitive content. Any photographs of people displaying fully nude genitalia or buttocks, or fully nude female breasts, will be removed. Photos of women actively engaging in breast feeding or exposing reconstructed nipples for awareness are allowed. We also make allowances for digitally produced content for educational, humorous, or satirical purposes, and for photographs of real world art. We understand that these limitations will sometimes affect content shared for legitimate reasons, including awareness campaigns or artistic projects, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

> Therefore I ask you to remove or pixelize this picture.

That's pretty clearly about the nudity.

Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#75

Post by daenney »

planetjones wrote: post #15

Was the Norwegian Prime Minister's post removed because she posted the image again in that post ? This is a crucial question and not clear from the article. If Facebook censored only words then this is a much larger issue. If they censored the whole post (including photo) then while debatable this is Facebook's policy i.e. a blanket ban on such imagery, irrespective of history. Edit: I don't find it clear journalism,…

In the article itself the PM gives Facebook credit for at least being consistent, w.r.t removing posts that contain that photo. So yes, it seems likely it was removed because of that picture.

However, you probably want to think twice before removing a post by any PM. Having done so only fuels the fire, which arguably can be a good thing in this case.

Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#76

Post by 1_listerine_pls »

RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #28

If you're a Facebook user and you are unhappy with the way the company strongarms, censors and manipulates its audience, the most effective way for you to express this dissatisfaction is to close your account, block social media bugs and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Facebook doesn't care how you feel when you use their service; their bottom line simply depends on your contribution to the statisti…

Nobody will close their accounts.

Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#77

Post by [deleted] »

arethuza wrote: post #51
ythl wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah because all of Europe sucks at making good web tech for some reason. Seriously - look at the top 100 websites in the world; not a single one produced by Europe[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites Edit: Downvote all you want. I'll redact my statement if someone can show me that Europe does not suck at making web tech. But you can't, because Europe is not competitive in the web tech…

Apart from the Web itself being invented by a European at a European research center?

[deleted]

Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#78

Post by ythl »

arethuza wrote: post #51
ythl wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah because all of Europe sucks at making good web tech for some reason. Seriously - look at the top 100 websites in the world; not a single one produced by Europe[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites Edit: Downvote all you want. I'll redact my statement if someone can show me that Europe does not suck at making web tech. But you can't, because Europe is not competitive in the web tech…

Apart from the Web itself being invented by a European at a European research center?

Debatable. Everyone loves to take credit for the invention of any revolutionary innovation. And indeed, credit can be spread all around.

It's like Europe claiming sole credit for the invention of the PC because Alan Turing was British even though Americans invented the integrated circuit and actually built the first viable PCs.

Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#79

Post by thechowchowman »

justsaysmthng wrote: post #63
RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #28

If you're a Facebook user and you are unhappy with the way the company strongarms, censors and manipulates its audience, the most effective way for you to express this dissatisfaction is to close your account, block social media bugs and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Facebook doesn't care how you feel when you use their service; their bottom line simply depends on your contribution to the statisti…

> is to close your account, block social media bugs and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Much easier said than done. First, there is no way to 'close' your account - you can only 'deactivate' it. I did it in July, but then I noticed that a lot of social activities - like concerts, festivals, parties, etc, are organised using Facebook so if you're not on it, you can't participate. This is very frustra…

Your first statement is incorrect, you can delete your account, it takes 14 days to do.

https://m.facebook.com/help/224562897555674?helpref=hc_fnav&...

Re: Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

#80

Post by danso »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #16

Why are we thinking of FB as some monolithic entity? Isn't the most likely explanation that some low-wage contractor in the Philippines saw a picture of a naked girl and flagged it? That contractor may not even know the historical significance of the picture. You're in a low-wage job and have to look at horrifying shit all day, every day. Are you going to let the one image through that maybe will cost you the job tha…

Unlikely. A lot of publicity was generated when the original photo was removed. Not only was a photo removed, but the newspaper employee who submitted it, IIRC, had their account suspended. So that's at least two levels of decision making. Then (as linked to in the OP), the newspaper's editor made a public appeal that was well-read in media and tech circles.

And now this, involving the Norwegian prime minister. I don't think the higher levels of Facebook are ignorant to the issue at this point.

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