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Facebook has removed Cancerfonden’s video on breast cancer awareness.
Facebook has removed Cancerfonden’s video on breast cancer awareness.
Facebook has removed Cancerfonden’s video on breast cancer awareness.

Facebook bans 'offensive' Swedish breast cancer awareness video

This article is more than 7 years old

Cancer charity to appeal against deletion of animated images showing women how to check for lumps

Facebook has removed a video on breast cancer awareness posted in Sweden after deeming the images offensive, the Swedish Cancer Society said on Thursday.

The video, displaying animated figures of women with circle-shaped breasts, was aimed at explaining to women how to check for suspicious lumps.

Sweden’s Cancerfonden said it had tried in vain to contact Facebook, and had decided to appeal against the decision to remove the video.

Facebook was not immediately available for comment.

“We find it incomprehensible and strange how one can perceive medical information as offensive,” Cancerfonden communications director Lena Biornstad told Agence France-Presse. “This is information that saves lives, which is important for us,” she said. “This prevents us from doing so.”

Facebook faced outrage in September for repeatedly deleting a historic Vietnam war photo included in a post by Norway’s prime minister, Erna Solberg.

It said the iconic photo of a naked Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm bombing violated its rules but later backtracked on the decision.

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