Facebook may be a place for a lot of things, but is decapitation videos one of them? 

Earlier this week,  two quite gruesome and controversial videos were posted to the popular social networking site.  One of the videos featured handcuffed Spanish speaking narcotic smugglers being decapitated with a chainsaw and knife.  The other, a masked man holding a woman’s severed head. The latter video resulted in 2,500 likes on Facebook.  

These videos stayed in circulation for a couple of days. In fact on Tuesday, Facebook pointedly refused to delete the videos.

Facebook Public Policy Associate Manager Fred Wolens said,

“Just as TV news programs often show upsetting images of atrocities, people can share upsetting videos on Facebook to raise awareness of actions or causes. While the video is shocking, our approach is designed to preserve people’s rights to describe, depict and comment on the world in which we live.” 

However,  many Facebook users did not agree with this statement, as over 600 signed a petition to remove the “terrorist threat videos.” Facebook also got attention from several media sources including BBC news who said the videos crossed the line.  

Responding to the public outcry, Facebook changed their stance yesterday and removed the videos.  They also issued a statement that they are evaluating the site’s policy on graphic content. 

Did anyone of our viewers see these grotesque videos? if so, please share your thoughts.

Do you think Facebook should have stuck to their original decision? Or were they justified in taking them down?