Facebook apologizes for banning mother from social network - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

Facebook apologizes for banning mother from social network

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MEMPHIS, TN -

(WMC-TV) – Facebook is apologizing to the mother who was temporarily banned from posting photos to the popular social networking site.

Heather Walker spoke with Action News 5 after she was temporarily banned from posting photos of her son, Grayson, who was born with a rare birth defect.  He was born with Anencephaly, a rare neural tube birth defect in which babies are born without parts of the brain and skull.

Baby Grayson's photo was flagged as offensive and removed by Facebook.

In protest, Walker continued to post photos of her son, who died eight hours after he was born in February.

Since her story aired on Action News 5, hundreds of people shared it on their own social networks and Facebook has since apologized to Walker and admitted to making a mistake.

"Upon investigation, we concluded the photo does not violate our guidelines and was removed in error," Facebook said in a written statement. "Facebook is a place where almost a billion people share more than 300 million photos a day. Our dedicated Users Operations Team reviews millions of pieces of this content a day to help keep Facebook safe for all ages. Our policies are enforced by a team of reviewers in several offices across the globe. This team looks at hundreds of thousands of reports every week, and as you might expect, occasionally, we make a mistake and remove a piece of content we shouldn't have. We extend our deepest condolences to the family and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience."

Walker accepts Facebook's apology, "After days of frustration over the removal of Grayson's photo, I am now at peace. I am grateful for their sincere apology and feel that this mistake will not happen to anyone else."

She is also amazed at the amount of support she received from across the country.

"Just in two days, all these people have messaged me telling me how much God has used Grayson's life to touch them and to work in their hearts and to make them appreciate the children they have, that they have healthy children."

Copyright 2012 WMC-TV. All rights reserved.

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Watch Jerica Phillips' first story with the Walker family; 8 Hours of Life View the photos Facebook removed and deemed 'offensive' Read Facebook's community standards