Outcry as Facebook removes Swedish breast cancer video

Video, displaying figures of women with circle-shaped breasts, aimed to explain how to check for suspicious lumps

STOCKHOLM: Facebook has removed a video on breast cancer awareness posted in Sweden because it deemed the images "offensive", the Swedish Cancer Society said Thursday.

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

Sweden's Cancerfonden said it has tried to contact Facebook without any response and has decided to appeal 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 AFP.

"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.