Technology

Why Was One Mom‘s Facebook Account Disabled After Posting Pics of Son With Down’s Syndrome?

Diana Cornwell locked From Facebook After Posting Photos of Son With Downs Syndrome | Facebook Cites Mistake

This screenshot shows just one of the images Facebook flagged of Diana Cornwell's son at the Special Olympics as a violation of its policy. (Image: WCNC screenshot)

Diana Cornwell like many a proud mother took to Facebook to share some of her 7-year-olds’ achievements. The North Carolinian woman uploaded about 40 pictures of her son, who has Down’s Syndrome, performing at the Special Olympics. Later when she logged onto her account, she had received a content notice that her photos were flagged as violating Facebook’s policies.

Facebook has since apologized stating the notice was a mistake, but the damage has already been done.

(Related: Ever wonder why something gets banned on Facebook? Here’s the answer)

Cornwell told WCNC the notice warned that in order for her to maintain an active account she would need to remove any pictures that “contain hate speech, support for violent organizations or threats to harm others.” Not having any pictures that fit this description, she decided to remove one of the pictures of her son to see if that was the trigger. When she received a message thanking her for the deletion, she became outraged.

Watch the report from early in the week:

Cornwell also said she was blocked completely for three days after the event for uploading the photos in the first place. WCNC has more in a separate article on what some commenters had to say about the situation:

“I would reset my privacy settings don’t allow public to see your Facebook. Only people you know,” one viewer said.

“How do pics of a disabled boy violate FB policies? I‘ve seen pictures that are almost obscene and they didn’t say anything,” a second viewer said.

“More than likely this was just a simple misunderstanding. There are over 3 billion posts on Facebook daily so this is bound to happen from time to time,” a third viewer said.

Later, Facebook spokesperson Andrew Noyes is reported as apologizing and citing that it was flagged in “error.“ He also said the social networking site hopes ”she’ll repost the photo and continue to share her son’s experience at the Special Olympics on Facebook.”

Cornwell responded with this sentiment, though: “This is not remotely over until they make some amends toward my son, toward myself and the Special Olympics.”

[H/T Daily Mail]

Comments (93)

1 2 3
  • KickinBack
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 11:19pm

    PC run amok…again.

    Report Post » KickinBack  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 11:33pm

      No, stupid overreaction by a woman who’s kind of a twit.

      Report Post » Jaycen  
    • Patriot of My America
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 11:33pm

      Zucckreberg sucks

      Report Post »  
    • loriann12
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 7:37am

      I have a son with Down syndrome. I was on a list one time and a woman took offense when I said Down’s kids. She said that puts the Down’s ahead of the kid. Give me a break. I’m not going to type child with down syndrome everytime I mention it. My son has a label. I have labels, too. I’m a mom, epileptic, cancer survivor, etc. I don’t think it was a mistake, no more than Twitter suspending the account of the guy who posted the video on If I Wanted To Destroy America. Bet they would allow pictures of an aborted fetus with Down’s syndrome.

      Report Post »  
    • EndTheFedNOW
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 1:20pm

      The Blaze=Censorship

      EndTheFedNOW  
    • EndTheFedNOW
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 1:40pm

      Glenn Beck is a tool

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQJigqbe3Rw

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OXKhbk4iJ4&feature=related

      EndTheFedNOW  
    • Chet Hempstead
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 4:19pm

      loriann12
      It is considered very backward to not practice “people-first” language. I’m also a big believer in dog first language. A dog isn’t an Irish wolfhound, it is a hound of wolves that is Irish. And thing first language, the fact that my house is a house and my car is a car is more important than what color they are. I drive my car of red to my house that is green.

      Or we could all just practice “language-first” language – the right way to say something is the simplest one that uses the fewest and most easily understood words.

      Report Post »  
    • EndTheFedNOW
      Posted on April 29, 2012 at 11:42am

      EndTheFedNOW
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 1:16pm
      Why does America have the highest cancer rates in the industrialized world? Why is it that just 50 years ago a kid with cancer was a super rare thing? How come 1 in 100 kids have autusim?

      BPA
      Vaccines
      Fluoride
      GMO’s

      Its very simple(expect gleen beck doesnt get it, he said he would drink gallons of fluoride) since the begining of time there has been a group of elite who control and dominate a population. Since our countrys industerial revolution (and before) big banks like the bank of england, centeral banks and the Rockefelles with the Rothchilds started funding all these science projects. They found out what all those things that I listed do. Companys like Monsanto make gmo corn. That is “grown” with poison in it so bugs wont eat it and farmers wont loose crops. Expect it all hurts humans. It hurts natural wildlife like bee’s. These people are sick and worship the devil. This is why your daughter or mother gets cancer. Your wife gets her breast chopped off. Its sick. Im saying there are real reasons that can be explained. There are real conspicarys. This has all benn talked about in the open for years if you know where to look. Even in main stream media. They talk about cancer viruses in vaccines. They talk about how fluoride is classified under hundreds of chemical names. Your mayor might have been paid to allow arsenic and 100s of other chemicals in your water.

      http://www.infowars.com/water-fluorid

      Report Post » EndTheFedNOW  
  • LogCabinRepublican
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 11:09pm

    What i don‘t get is that Facebook doesn’t flag naked pictures – there is ALOT of porn on Facebook and they don’t get flagged or blocked – What’s going on here??

    Report Post »  
    • db321
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 11:21pm

      Like Rush Said – Liberals honestly believe that Racism and Cruelty is in the DNA of all Americans – What you and I as see as a photo of a Happy handsome young man that is having tons of fun on an important day for him – they see it as one that is taking advantage or making fun of people with difficulties. Libs put all people into groups – Blacks, Whites, and Handicapped.

      Liberals are the ones that are racist and cruel. I say they are eaten up with the Dumb A$$!

      Report Post » db321  
    • Lonescrapper
      Posted on April 29, 2012 at 8:39am

      What I don‘t get is why it’s in poor taste to have incorrect speech about Downs syndrome, but it’s perfectly fine to kill them, both before and possibly after they are born.

      Report Post » Lonescrapper  
  • SickandTiredAmerican
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 11:07pm

    This was nothing more then a mistake, nothing more. Now she wants something from Facebook? Let me guess… could it be MONEY? They have apologized for the error. That should be enough. Jeez!

    Report Post » SickandTiredAmerican  
    • 9111315
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 8:41am

      FB will have to sponsor the Special Olympics with a One Million Dollar donation next year.

      . . . and I bet it was one of her friends who clicked the Flag button by mistake.

      Report Post »  
    • troymac20
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 12:44pm

      Yep!

      Report Post » troymac20  
  • glennrocks
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:40pm

    Remember the pre-Obama years,when we had freedom?

    Report Post »  
    • Freedom.Fighter
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 11:10pm

      Pre-Obama years? I think we lost freedom a long, long time ago. I haven’t seen a president truly fight for freedom in my entire lifetime. Then again, I am just 26, but it would be nice to see a president fight for liberty some time within my lifetime.

      Report Post » Freedom.Fighter  
    • loriann12
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 7:40am

      Freedom started going down hill when Reagan left office. Even both the Bush’s were slightly socialist leaning. Clinton wanted Agenda 21, before we knew what it was, and didn‘t one of the Bush’s sign it, too? We need to make the office of president the average wage of Americans (that’s about $50,000 if I remember) and Representatives and Senators minimum wage. Then we’d get patriots.

      Report Post »  
    • dissentnow
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 7:42am

      @Glennrocks

      You mean back when Bush was in office when we had the patriot act, which gutted the 1st and 4th amendments, and domestic spy programs?
      Obama has taken the Bush/Cheney big government, big spending, big nanny state ball and ran with it.
      Drop the party loyalty and stop being brainwashed. We’ve been losing our freedoms for years. It didn’t just start with Obama.

      Report Post »  
    • bdandsl
      Posted on April 29, 2012 at 6:59pm

      For the next decade Congress needs to STOP making new laws and work on eliminating about 75% of those on the books now. Enough is enough!

      Report Post » bdandsl  
  • Chet Hempstead
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:38pm

    I see from the video that some of the pictures include adults in Wizard of Oz themed costumes, and that the one the mother took down as an experiment was of her son with the guy in the scarecrow costume. Perhaps someone mistakenly believed that the dude in the picture was actually singing “If I Only Had a Brain” to the kid at the time the picture was taken.

    Report Post »  
  • BlackCrow
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:29pm

    Special Olympics violent? threating? hate speech? If memory serves one of the Kennedy sisters (The John, Robert, Edward Kennedys) who was one of the founding directors. Insane!

    But the Blaze thinks references to small unleavened baked bread products are racist and need to be censored where the British spelling of arse instead of a$$ is just fine.

    Report Post » BlackCrow  
  • Pro-Palin
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:15pm

    I am saying in general not specifically to what this artical is about. Why do u want a FB account that the gvt monitors and scans every image and has a database of your life . Sometimes silence is golden …. when you know Big Brother is actively monitoring u and then you have corp big brother goolgle and apple and msn developing their profiles to especially google. I want phone service not a monitoring service with my internet search queries. do a search for smartpage and do you business on a secure site that annoomizes you and that is one example many others do it as well.

    Report Post » Pro-Palin  
    • dissentnow
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 7:47am

      Thank you!
      You are a fool if you have a facebook ( unless, of course, you are one of those “if you aint got nothing to hide then you aint got nothing to worry about” people then, by all means, continue allowing the government to spy on you via facebook ).

      Report Post »  
    • Amica
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 10:56am

      You guys know that if facebook is monitored then The Blaze must be too, right? The truth is that everything about you is available to anyone who knows how to access it.

      Report Post » Amica  
  • BJC
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:14pm

    Facebook doesn’t allow hate speech? Uhmmm…maybe this lady should have taken pictures of her son in a Mosque and yelling ali akbar. Facebook seems to have no problem with that loving message!!

    I quit Facebook two years ago and haven’t missed it one lil bit!!!

    Report Post »  
  • Biminy
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:09pm

    “This is not remotely over until they make some amends toward my son, toward myself and the Special Olympics.”

    Really??? What the hell are you going to do, sue them? Amends to your son for what? A computer glitch that accidently flagged the wrong friggen photo? So what, your kid is now entitled to, oh I don’t know, $5 to $10 million for an accident?

    Wake the F up people. THIS is what our society is becoming. I feel more sorry for the kid because of his mother than I do about his photo getting removed.

    Report Post » Biminy  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 11:30pm

      Right on, Biminy. That reaction is completely over the top. Grow up. Many people use Special Olympics as a slam on unimpared people, so software did it’s job to protect you, and ended up inconveniencing you. It didn’t cost you any business, nor did you suffer an assault on your person or character.

      Shut it.

      Report Post » Jaycen  
    • The Jewish Avenger
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 8:41am

      I hope she wins, but, since its the gov’s playground, she wont.

      Report Post » The Jewish Avenger  
    • Amica
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 10:59am

      Agreed. The only way her son is really hurt by this is if he had to witness her ranting and raving about it.

      Report Post » Amica  
  • Pro-Palin
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:05pm

    you are fools to be on FB anyway….

    Report Post » Pro-Palin  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:02pm

    @Razlord
    Don’t cook in aluminum pots or pans either…

    Report Post » The-Monk  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:49pm

    Disabled Son = disabled account? Face plant one on Facebook by canceling your account. Didn’t they just temp cancel the account for the “What if I wanted America to Fail?” video?

    http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/video-if-i-wanted-america-to-fail/

    You all do know where Robert Gibbs went, right? He’s at Facebook now. And you do know who Robert Gibbs is, right?

    Report Post » The-Monk  
  • scrapadapolis
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:49pm

    And she puts this out there why?Lady did you call the news agencys?What do you want justice for trayvon?You want money?Get a life single mom of one who most likely looking for a hand out or be paid for going on fox news or local broadcasts….

    Report Post » scrapadapolis  
  • CoyoteDKM
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:37pm

    Someone who saw the pictures flagged them, and facebook did what it did automatically, without even checking to see if the complaints were legit. Democrat posters do this to conservatives all the time. They’ll abuse the flagging system, knowing that facebook automatically does this without checking, as a way to shut down people who make more sense than them. Bet it was some one like that who was flagging her.

    Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:47pm

      Yes .. I was going to post the same thing … sounds like some idiot with an “agenda” ;-)

      Report Post »  
    • IDONTTHINKSO
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:52pm

      But shouldn’t a person look before making a call like that?

      Report Post »  
  • 13th Generation American
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:31pm

    They apologized lady, get over it, move on.

    Report Post » 13th Generation American  
  • South Philly Boy
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:28pm

    That’s One of the reasons I REFUSE to JOIN

    Report Post » South Philly Boy  
  • lukerw
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:27pm

    If a Site offends you… Stop using it!

    Report Post » lukerw  
  • hi
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:26pm

    Making a big deal over it makes it worse.

    Report Post » hi  
  • Mr.Fitnah
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:25pm

    Some of the nicest people I meet every-week have Downs , I would rather deal with them than your “average person”.

    Report Post » Mr.Fitnah  
    • wakeus_com
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:29pm

      They are gifts from the Lord. Full of nothing but love for other people.

      Report Post » wakeus_com  
    • Copo
      Posted on April 28, 2012 at 12:12pm

      Absolutely. My sister is disabled with Acardi Syndrome (Similar to what Bella Santorum has) and she’s been a great blessing in my life. No one who has ever met a disabled child would ever support the abortion of them. They are the only innocent people left in our society.

      Report Post » Copo  
  • mccracken
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:23pm

    Many pages devoted to Special Olympics

    http://www.facebook.com/SpecialOlympics

    Report Post »  
  • Benbit
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:23pm

    Want be long still it’s called In Your Facebook

    Report Post »  
  • The Third Archon
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:17pm

    “Cornwell responded with this sentiment, though: “This is not remotely over until they make some amends toward my son, toward myself and the Special Olympics.”
    Why? It’s not like they did it KNOWING the picture was of a kid competing in the Special Olympics–that’s the whole POINT! If their system hadn’t messed up, OBVIOUSLY the photo wouldn’t have been flagged. It’s not as if they saw your photo and said to themselves “hey, we hate disabled people–you know what we should do? Ban photos of them!”

    Report Post » The Third Archon  
  • Americanaiko
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:16pm

    Cornwell responded with this sentiment, though: “This is not remotely over until they make some amends toward my son, toward myself and the Special Olympics.”

    Good. Don’t let that smarmy Harvard guy or the PC police he employs, screw with you. My account is very close to being deleted….by me. Sad. But they have far too many “errors”.

    Report Post » Americanaiko  
  • Charlie Justice
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:11pm

    http://Www.iamnotsorry.com

    Peace, Charlie

    Report Post » Charlie Justice  
  • trinklefinder
    Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:09pm

    Get over it, move on.

    Report Post » trinklefinder  
    • grimmy
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 9:17pm

      @trinklefinder aka encinom.
      Seriously encinom, does media matters supply you with these names, or does you pea brain think of them yourself,dumbass pos idiot….

      Drago.

      Report Post »  
    • trinklefinder
      Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:10pm

      A) im not encinom, B) they are living in your head if you are going to accuse someone of being a liberal loon just because you dont agree with their opinion, C) i rather like trinklefinder, i find it amusing, along with my other screen name princessnutsack, D) grimmy is boring and uncreative….yaaaaawn, E) nice, thanks for name calling, and F) for finally, and most importantly they APOLOGIZED, unless you have evidence it was intentional then you have to take them at their word and trust it was an error! so accept the apology and freaking get over it and move on! people are such whiny pansies.

      Report Post » trinklefinder  
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