Facebook Does a 180 on 'Napalm Girl' Photo

Facebook is backing down: Outrage followed the social network's decision to censor a famous Vietnam War photo showing a young, naked girl running from napalm bombs after tearing off her burning clothes, and now Facebook has reversed that decision. Facebook had removed the photo from the Facebook page of Norway's biggest newspaper because it violated the site's nudity policy; the newspaper, Norway's prime minister, and others quickly rebuked Facebook for doing so. On Friday, Facebook said it would restore the image, which had also apparently been removed from the PM's Facebook page, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our community standards, and in some countries might even qualify as child pornography," a Facebook spokesperson said. In this case, we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time." The site also said it would make changes to its review process so that the photo would not be affected again in the future. More on the controversy here. (More Facebook stories.)