Babies with Birth Defects: The Latest Victims of Facebook Censoring

Facebook is notorious for over censoring. But it must have gone through a particularly unlucky streak recently because that whole “Sometimes things slip through our system” excuse is sounding a bit old. 

The thing is, we’re not just talking about the funny pieces of art that get taken down because there’s some genitalia involved, we’re talking about offending some real people with real problems.

infobo.com

In 2012, Facebook deleted pictures of Heather and Patrick Walker’s baby, because he had passed away having suffered from a birth defect, resulting in some of the pictures being a bit on the graphic side.  But for most of the pictures, the baby was clothed and the defects were completely covered up.

Heather tried to beat the system by repeatedly putting the picture back on her profile. All this led to was Facebook temporarily freezing her account.

If you’re wondering, here are the 9 standards for offensive/removable content on Facebook: Violence and Threats, Self-Harm, Bullying and Harassment, Hate Speech, Graphic Violence, Nudity and Pornography, Identity and Privacy, Intellectual Property and Phishing and Spam.

Where does a beautiful baby go in all that?

Wait, it gets worse.

On March 4^th, Timothy Eli Thompson was born prematurely with a 1 in 197 million condition, resulting in him having no nasal passages or sinus cavities. None the less, the baby is beautiful. So what was wrong this time, Facebook?

mirror.co.uk

According to his mother, Brandi McGlathery, the images were removed because a pro-life group tried to promote his story and it all just proved too controversial for Facebook.

Facebook’s reply to things like this tend to be along the lines of:

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

If you ask me, if someone is your Facebook friend but can’t hack an inconvenient truth than maybe they need to come off Facebook. Or the internet altogether? There’s a lot worse out there than an innocent baby. Get a grip people.

Dear Facebook,

These are just two examples out of possibly millions that are similar. I have an idea that can help.

Maybe, it’s time to think about your rules. Stop treating people and their content like numbers and actually begin to put some time back in. You’re a giant company, I’m sure you can afford to hire a few people that make sure things like this don’t happen again, right?

Oh, and if someone keeps uploading the same photo, despite your censoring attempts, then get a real human to check it out. You know, with a real human mind and human heart. Just give the content some thought.

If you keep going along hurting the feelings of those who might already be hurting quite a lot, then you’re really going to end up in the bad books of the people who make you as big as you are.

Regards,
Dissatisfied customer No. 19371300542

Megan Herdson

Megan is a country girl who moved to the city with some big dreams. She is studying her MA in Creative Writing whilst also managing an American Football Team.  She loves her blog and wants nothing more than to have her words read. That and to win the Championship, obviously. Follow her @MeganAtSMF

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