Did Facebook remove a photo of a baby with a birth defect?

Messages are circulating that claim Facebook have removed photos of a baby with a birth defect and banned the account of the baby’s mother, because the photos were too graphic.

The image accompanying the photo is Grayson James Walker who was born in February 2012 (not 2014, like many reports are erroneously reporting) with a serious birth defect that claimed his life only hours after being born.

In 2012, Graysons mother Heather, reported that Facebook removed photos of her son for violating Facebooks terms of service and had at one point had her account temporarily suspended. Back in 2012 the story was picked up by various mainstream media outlets.

Since then, however, Facebook reinstated Heathers account and have since allowed the photos back onto Facebook. Facebooks reporting system, as we often find ourselves reporting, is fundamentally flawed as it is often criticised for being too reliant on its users and does not have enough human supervision and oversight, leading to too many mistakes.

This leads to a lot of controversial removals, including this incident.

Why these messages are resurfacing years after the event is unclear, but the notable facts that are not mentioned in these messages are that Facebook reportedly reversed the decision shortly after the controversy and that it all occurred back in 2012.

It is also worth noting that this same photo is popularly exploited by life-farming scammers who falsely claim Facebook are donating money in order to garner fans for like-farming webpages.