Mum Shocked Facebook Banned This Photo of her Smiling Daughter

Facebook has been slammed for removing a photo of a little girl with a rare disease, claiming it was ‘shocking, sensational and excessively violent’.

A British mother was left horrified when Facebook banned a photo of her smiling daughter because she was being fed by a tube.

Shai Winn, 9, has spent her entire life being fed by a tube after she was born with a rare condition.

She was born prematurely at 31 weeks with a “V-shaped pocket” at the back of her throat — known as laryngeal cleft.

The cleft meant that she had a hole between her voice box and food pipe — which means food or drink can pass into her airway.

Her mother, Lindsey Bidwill, 40, started a charity on Facebook to raise awareness about the condition.

But when she went to upload a photo of her daughter, smiling with her food tube, she was told by the international social media company that it was “shocking, sensational or excessively violent”.

Ms Bidwill immediately appealed the decision — which was rectified within about 10 minutes, Facebook told The Sun.

“I was just shocked,” Ms Bidwill said.

“Even if it was a robot (that removed the photo) it is just not on.”

According to Ms Bidwill, she couldn’t bring herself to tell Shai what had happened as “she would have been really upset”.

“Some of the stuff on Facebook is absolutely shocking so I couldn’t believe they didn’t let me post a picture of my daughter,” Ms Bidwill said.
A Facebook spokesman told The Sun: “Shai’s picture was reinstated within less than ten minutes of Ms Bidwill reporting it to us.

“We know how important it is for families like Shai’s to raise awareness of causes that are close to their hearts on Facebook and we wish Shai and her family all the very best with their fundraising efforts.”

Share your comments below

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.

23 Comments

- - nealsq said
  - 24 Mar 2019
    11:54 pm
makes me so mad, you see all the blood and gore on fb, hell they even allowed the live streaming of the NZ Mosque murders but this little girl’s beautiful smile gets blocked!

- - roseuponatime said
  - 10 Mar 2019
    7:24 am
What a beautiful photo! I’m not a fan of Facebook! This is just ridiculous!

- - Blossom said
  - 08 Feb 2019
    10:20 pm
Lindsey set this page up to make people aware of her daughter’s medical condition, and to raise funds for the charity, not to go into her own pocket.

- - mom93821 said
  - 02 Feb 2019
    1:32 pm
Seriously! How on earth was the decision made – is it the same picture in the article? Because clearly it is fine in every way!

- - rnash02 said
  - 01 Feb 2019
    5:16 am
I’m amazed how certain photos are able to upload, and beauitful photos aren’t, I’m glad this mum was able to get it fixed, it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

- - mom111059 said
  - 31 Jan 2019
    10:12 pm
Got to wonder about the people running facebook. There’s nothing wrong with the photo.

- - mom101628 said
  - 31 Jan 2019
    10:02 pm
Strange how this photo could have been seen as shocking or sensationally violent – but so glad it was rectified.

- - musicmum said
  - 31 Jan 2019
    9:05 pm
Facebook is strange how it operates, it seems to be those who are working on it making the decisions based on personal opinions, why do they leave violent acts against animals and people on there?

- - nealsq said
  - 31 Jan 2019
    8:46 am
This was not the fault of facebook but the fault of someone you know that reported the picture, facebook removes any pic that has been reported until there is an appeal. You need new friends
- mom93821 replied
  
  03 Feb 2019 , 5:37 am
  This is rather sad that anyone would report it!
- - Ellen said
  - 31 Jan 2019
    7:40 am
Unbelievable ! Not shocking, sensational or excessively violent at all !!

- - mom265671 said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    11:03 pm
Nothing wrong with this at all

- - Mum2archer said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    11:00 pm
And yet I have reported videos and photos of animal cruelty and violence but the review has come back as nothing is wrong – and yet they see something beautiful like this and remove it? Seems so wrong to me. She is a beautiful little girl, and this move by FB is disgusting
- musicmum replied
  
  31 Jan 2019 , 9:07 pm
  Yep they are an evil company, that makes too many decisions for society, they have the power.
- - mom111059 said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    10:47 pm
This little girl is beautiful. Absolutely nothing wrong with the photo. Mum has every right to be upset.

- - skbou said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    9:53 pm
It was rectified pretty quickly and she couldn’t bring herself to tell her daughter yet she’s telling who knows how many 100’s of other people?

- - ashna9 said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    7:55 pm
There’s nothing wrong with this photo at all.

- - BellaB said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    6:25 pm
At least they fixed it quickly. Nothing wrong with that photo.

- - mom112217 said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    4:50 pm
This is so ridiculous,nothing wrong at all with the photo!

- - mom90758 said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    3:17 pm
Unbelievable. I don’t agree with the choice Facebook made. She’s the sweetest girl ever.

- - mom160421 said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    3:06 pm
My goodness Facebook is out of touch.

- - mom81879 said
  - 30 Jan 2019
    12:48 pm
I am constantly amazed at what Facebook remove, ban compared to what they consider is ok to leave up. Makes me wonder