Facebook boss criticized for censoring 'Napalm Girl' photo

Mark Zuckerberg was criticized for Facebook's arbitrarily deleting "Napalm Girl", a famous photo of the Vietnam War, posted on the social network by a Norwegian newspaper.

Photo "Napalm Girl" by Nick Ut.

Aftenposten, Norway's largest newspaper, on September 8 published an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, criticizing the decision to censor the famous "Napalm Girl" photo about the Vietnam War, the Guardian reported. The newspaper described Zuckerberg as "the most powerful editor in the world".

Espen Egil Hansen, editor-in-chief and CEO of Aftenposten, accused Zuckerberg of "abusing his power" without thinking.

"I am upset, disappointed, even frightened, about what you intend to do to a pillar of our democratic society," Mr. Hansen wrote, referring to Facebook, the social network that has become the world's largest news and information channel.

Controversy arose when Facebook decided to delete an article by Norwegian writer Tom Egeland discussing "7 photos that changed the history of war" that included a photo of "Napalm Girl". "Napalm Girl", taken by Nick Ut, captured the image of a Vietnamese girl with a panicked face running naked after a South Vietnamese military plane dropped Napalm bombs on Trang Bang, Tay Ninh.

Aftenposten received a request to remove the photo on September 7. "Photos of naked people, uncovered buttocks or breasts will be removed," Facebook explained.

"Less than 24 hours after the email was sent, before I had time to respond, you intervened and deleted the post and the photo on Facebook Aftenposten," Hansen wrote. He said the decision to remove the photo showed that Facebook was not capable of "distinguishing between child pornography and famous war photos" and was unwilling to "exercise good judgment."

Facebook has no comments yet.

According to VNE