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

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]