FACEBOOK has apologised to a Sydney jeweller for censoring her images of a nude porcelain doll posing with her works.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports this morning Facebook admitted it made a "mistake" in removing Victoria Buckley's photos, after last week sending her warning notices for publishing "inappropriate content" and erasing both censored and uncensored versions of the image from Facebook.
"We've investigated this further and determined that we made a mistake in removing these photos," Facebook said.
"Our User Operations team reviews thousands of reported photos a day and may occasionally remove something that doesn't actually violate our policies. This is what happened here.
"And while we believe the doll would benefit from clothing to protect her fair skin, we apologise for the mistake and encourage Victoria Buckley Jewellery to upload these photos again if they so choose."
Facebook said "technical reasons" prevented it from restoring the photos on its own.
Facebook had previously shut down the page featuring the topless porcelain doll.
The doll features on a page advertising exclusive Sydney jewellery boutique, Victoria Buckley Jewellery.
"I'm delighted that Facebook has seen reason, and they are acknowledging that the images are acceptable," Buckley told the Sydney Morning Herald this morning.
"However, I still haven't heard from Facebook directly. I would love to be able to repost my original images, but I'm concerned that a single complaint in the future might be grounds for closure.
"The Facebook system is still very opaque and seems very arbitrary," she said.
Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which governs its relationship with users and those who interact with the site, specifies strict rules when it comes to risque content.
"You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence," section seven of its safety section states.
Business owner Ms Buckley received six messages from Facebook saying: "Images have been removed".
"We have removed your images, you're in violation," Ms Buckley said she was told.
But as Ms Buckley has a number of pages she was confused which images were removed.
In a bid not to further breach the social media giant's rules, and lose her business's social media portal with 2000 followers, she removed all pictures of the topless doll.
Ms Buckley made efforts to contact Facebook, but could not track down anyone.
She then started a new group called "Save Ophelia - exquisite doll censored by Facebook", which was almost immediately shut down with no explanation.
This was despite her also removing the images from that page after another violation notice.
"I'm not trying to slag off Facebook, but I'm frustrated with this process," Ms Buckley said.
"There's not a lot of clarity about what is going on.
"I realise the images are a problem for Facebook, but the site was closed down overnight with no warning."
Given there are 400 million Facebook users, it is through that reporting process that breaches were discovered, the public relations person said.
Although the Victoria Buckley Jewellery Facebook page still exists, the porcelain doll, which was judged to be showing too much flesh, has now been censored with a bold black rectangle across its tiny bust.
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