Sunday, May 20, 2012

Mother's Fury After Facebook BANS Her From Posting Pictures Of Her Baby

A furious mother is demanding answers from Facebook as to why they took down photographs she posted on the site of her son, who was born with a rare birth defect, and then later banned her from the site altogether. 

Grayson James Walker, from Memphis, Tennessee, was born on February 15, 2012 with Anencephaly, a rare neural tube birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.
His parents Heather and Patrick Walker knew 16 weeks into the pregnancy their son would not live very long due to his birth defect.

'They of course gave us the option to terminate,' said Heather. But they chose to carry their baby full term and turned to God for strength.'My husband and I, we started prayer and we knew that God knew since the beginning of time that he had us for this,' she said.

The couple were fully prepared to have to say goodbye to him on the same day they welcomed him into the world.
So, with the help of non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, they had a professional photographer to take photos of their newborn, just the same way as they did with their other two children and what most parents around the world do.

He only lived for eight hours but the Walkers wanted to capture his short life so his memory could live on forever.
Heather explained to Fox News that she uploaded the pictures on to her Facebook page so she could share them with family and friends.

In most of the pictures, baby Grayson is wearing a hat. But in some, he was not.
Heather explained: 'Not long after, Facebook deleted them because of the content. They allow people to post almost nude pictures of themselves, profanity, and so many other things but I'm not allowed to share a picture of God's beautiful creation.'
After repeatedly putting the removed picture on her profile, her account was temporarily disabled.
According to Facebook's community standards page, there are nine types of content that may be deemed offensive and removed: Violence and Threats, Self-Harm, Bullying and Harassment, Hate Speech, Graphic Violence, Nudity and Pornography, Identity and Privacy, Intellectual Property and Phishing and Spam
Heather said she has no idea which category the picture of her child without the hat falls under but has now launched a protest  - posting the picture several times and getting her friends and family to contact Facebook.
Patrick Walker said of his son: 'You know, my son lived almost eight hours, and he's already done in eight hours what I could never do in a hundred lifetimes, and that's awesome.'
As of today, Heather's Facebook page is active again and the picture of Grayson which was deemed 'graphic' has not been removed.
Facebook have yet to provide a statement.

Source daily mail

21 comments:

Karen Greenberg said...

I can't wait to hear what Facebook has to say about this.

momto8 said...

God bless the parents for choosing life. Facebook is a sham.

Christina Morley said...

Thank you for sharing this. I haven't seen the photos, so it's hard to imagine part of his skull and brain missing. Poor little guy. I'm glad he's in the Lord's loving arms. What did the father mean when he said of his son: 'You know, my son lived almost eight hours, and he's already done in eight hours what I could never do in a hundred lifetimes, and that's awesome.' What were they hoping to accomplish by posting his image without the hat? Obviously, the reason can't be that they took on FB and won. The child's life was more valuable than that. God bless, Tina http://abooksandmore.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this story!

Unknown said...

I am sorry to see what these parents have experienced. It is so sad that their child was not able to live for long. I wonder why Facebook banned the picture. I have not seen it.

Unknown said...

I am sorry to see what these parents have experienced. It is so sad that their child was not able to live for long. I wonder why Facebook banned the picture. I have not seen it.

Anonymous said...

Zuckerberg starts to suck!

Unknown said...

Sounds like Facebook has an apology to make.

Kai Grafia said...

Hi! Visiting from BSN!
Followed your blog via GFC hope you can return the favor! :)

Nice blog! Very informative!

kaigrafia.com

May said...

@ Christina i read that many times to really understand what the father meant, but i couldn't figure it out..

Maybe facebook thinks that the picture didn't need such Exposure.. And i was thinking why did the mother carry him for nine months knowing fully well that he has only eight hours to live? Do you all think that is a reasonable decision?

WhatJeanLikes said...

I don't think Facebook had any right to remove the picture of her precious little boy or block her at all!!! Who are they to judge? And believe me, there are other pictures on FB that get a lot more traffic yet remain online for everyone to see. I have no idea why anyone would do that but it saddens me to know that a poor mama can't share a photo of her and her baby boy online. God bless her and her husband and precious boy!

Your post was featured in my Monday Bytes favorite posts of the week!! Check it out here and grab a badge if you want!

http://www.whatjeanlikes.com/2012/05/monday-bytes-3.html

Small Kucing said...

why Facebook ban her. ...cant wait to see their answer

Small Kucing said...

why Facebook ban her. ...cant wait to see their answer

Snowies said...

I knew there was a reason I hated FB. That's just unreal.

Unknown said...

Facebook seriously needs to hire some new people or make some new rules or something.

fanta4two said...

Hi, this post is so sad :(
I hopped on in fom the blog hop. and am now following you. Would love for you to visit me to at www.fanta4two.com Thanks Patty

Misadventures in Motherhood said...

Oh wow... just, wow. I am amazed at the strength and faith of this couple, and I am horrified that Facebook would be so insensitive. It really makes you think. Thanks so much for sharing this.

Ladytee said...

@May to answer your question about why the mother choose to bring her son into the world knowing what the outcome would be; to put it simply...faith. She probably thought that through prayer & God's will there might have been an inkling of a chance that their son would beat the odds. Smh@Facebook. I too can't wait to see what they have to say.

Lindsay said...

What a horrible thing to do! I would be so upset!!!

Caleybird. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Caleybird. said...

People need to understand that Facebook is a huge social networking website that gets millions upon millions of photo traffic every day. The picture appeared to be a photo of a disabled baby; and believe it or not, there are accounts that post that stuff as a sick joke. The moderators have to go through hundreds upon hundreds of reported and posted photos every day. If it is a photo that may be offensive or TRIGGERING to other people (other people with passed children may not want to see it) they take I down. They don't we the situation, didn't know she was the mother. They saw a photo of a baby with its brain exposed. Taken out of the circumstances, it can be considered offensive and morbid. That's why they took it down.

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