Facebook has been involved once again in a huge controversy after it blocked and removed a breast cancer awareness video posted in Sweden, deeming the images offensive. This action resulted in a scandalous censorship row that ended with the social networking giant apologizing for its actions.
Controversial Video Was Informational
The video was published by the Swedish Cancer Society, in which it was displayed animated figures of women with circle-shaped breasts, explaining how to check for suspicious lumps in order to detect and treat the terrible disease on time. According to The Guardian, the organization revealed that Facebook´s explanation for the deletion was that social network prohibited marketing ads about sex products.
"We're very sorry, our team processes millions of advertising images each week, and in some instances we incorrectly prohibit ads. This image does not violate our ad policies. We apologise for the error and have let the advertiser know we are approving their ads," a Facebook spokeswoman told the media during its apology.
Facebook´s Previous Censoring Scandals
The cancer group, Cancerfonden, responded to Facebook with an open letter in which it was explained not only that their only task was to disseminate information about this disease, but also how they managed to worked out a creative way to get round the social media restrictions.
"We understand that you have to have rules about the content published on your platform. But you must also understand that one of our main tasks is to disseminate important information about cancer - in this case breast cancer," Cencerfonden stated.
"After trying to meet your control for several days without success, we have now come up with a solution that will hopefully make you happy: Two pink squares! This cannot possibly offend you, or anyone. Now we can continue to spread our important breast school without upsetting you."
According to The Telegraph, this is the second censorship scandal that Facebook is facing in a very short period, since the social media removed in September the Pulitzer prize-winning photograph of the naked nine-year-old Kim Phuc, fleeing a napalm attack during the Vietnam war.
