Facebook to allow graphic posts if deemed 'newsworthy

Facebook is taking steps to avoid a repeat of last month's Napalm Girl controversy, while potentially opening itself up to a new headache.

Facebook (FB, Tech30) announced Friday that it plans to cut down censorship of offensive posts that may violate its community standards against nudity and violence -- that is, if those posts are deemed to be in the public interest.
"In the weeks ahead, we're going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest -- even if they might otherwise violate our standards," according to a blog post from Joel Kaplan, VP of global public policy at Facebook and Justin Osofsky, its VP in charge of media partnerships.

The shift comes one month after Facebook found itself at the center of an international outcry for preventing users from posting the iconic "Napalm Girl" picture. The image, one of the most famous war photographs in history, depicts a naked girl fleeing a Napalm attack.

Facebook eventually reinstated the image under pressure, concluding that "the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal."

The company also came under fire this week for removing a breast cancer awareness video in Sweden for being graphic. The company later apologized and said it was incorrectly removed.

The announcement to cut down on censorship comes as Facebook employees reportedly debated whether to remove certain posts from Donald Trump for violating its rules against hate speech...............

money.cnn.com