Facebook Sorry for Deleting Family Photo of Newborn With Brain Defect

Like many a proud mother, Heather Walker posted a photo of her newborn on Facebook. Soon thereafter though, her photo was taken down and her account blocked for 24 hours. Now, Facebook is apologizing for taking down a family photo that never should have been considered in violation of its policies.

(Related: Facebook bans mother for posting photos of baby born with severe birth defect)

Grayson James Walker was born the morning of Feb. 15, 2012, with a rare disorder that caused him to be born without a large part of his brain. By evening of the same day he had passed away. His mother has been mourning his death and keeping up her thoughts on a blog describing the family's journey with anencephaly.

The Memphis mom of three actually waited until just this month to post her first photo of Grayson on the social networking site. On her blog, she explains she was "tired of trying to hide my son, the way he was, just to make others feel comfortable." She at first felt "people would be scared or offended" by his appearance but in a "sudden impulse" of being a proud mother, she posted the photo.

The next time she logged onto Facebook, her initial fears were confirmed as she found a message saying content on her page had been blocked. Heather was offended, hurt and angry. That's when she decided to post a comment about her frustration and it snowballed from there. Heather was interviewed by local media and the story spread. Watch this local Fox report:

“Not long after, Facebook deleted them because of the content,” she told WMC-TV at the time.  “They allow people to post almost nude pictures of themselves, profanity, and so many other things but I‘m not allowed to share a picture of God’s beautiful creation.”

This isn't the first time Facebook has accidentally blocked content that didn't in fact violate its extensive photo policies. Earlier this year, the Blaze reported on a leaked guidance document for third-parties that Facebook hires to review content for potential violations. Many bodily substances are considered "abuse standards violations" and some injuries, if insides are showing, are banned as well. Many of these third-party moderators, Gawker originally reported, are working for companies overseas.

(Related: Why was one mom's Facebook account disabled after posting pics of her son with Down's syndrome?)

But Facebook has now had a change of heart and Heather and her husband Patrick received what they were looking for: an apology and condolences from the Facebook team. Heather wrote, "It made mine and Patrick's day and took the burden of offense off our shoulders. That was never our intention in the first place."

In a statement, Facebook acknowledged that in reviewing more than 300 million photos uploaded to the site a day,moderators occasionally make a mistake.

[H/T Radar Online]