Facebook stated more meaningful post to come considering the ‘public interest’

Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, has changed its approached in dealing with posts that potentially breaks its strict community guidelines. With numerous controversies of banning sensible and historically significant posts, it will now allow more items that are newsworthy, significant, or important posts to the public.

According to the blog post of Joel Kaplan, VP Global Public Policy, and Justin Osofsky, VP Global Operations and Media Partnerships "Observing global standards for our community is complex. Whether an image is newsworthy or historically significant is highly subjective. Images of nudity or violence that are acceptable in one part of the world may be offensive - or even illegal - in another." This is to follow up with the recent "Napalm girl" photo, where Facebook banned and removed the photo due to nudity. Later then reversing the decision and stated to return the post back.

Facebook has been dealing with these kinds of issues time after time as its status progress as a global media brand. With over one billion people using social networking sites, there is no escape in creating such fuss. On the said blog, Facebook stated "We're looking forward to working closely with experts, publishers, journalists, photographers, law enforcement officials and safety advocates about how to do better when it comes to the kinds of items we allow." This is to ensure that the images and stories that they allow to post does not impose safety risk and graphic images to minors.

Discussions like this will most likely be a trend in the future. With the huge number of users depending on social media for news, current events, updates, and many more, it is highly required to stay balanced with the public interests. If Facebook imparts liability with posts on their site, should we do too? What are your thoughts?