Facebook sorry for deleting iconic Vietnam War napalm picture

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg has apologised to Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg for deleting a photograph from its pages and conceded that "we don't always get it right".

Facebook's chief operating officer Sandberg said in a letter to Ms Solberg that she had raised important issues about Facebook's decision to remove postings of an iconic 1972 image of naked, screaming, nine-year-old Kim Phuc running from a napalm attack in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Solberg had posted the 1972 photograph to her own facebook page, writing: “Facebook is wrong when they censor these pictures. It helps to slow down freedom of speech. I say yes to a healthy, open and free debate on the internet … but I say no to this form of censorship.”

On Friday, following protests in Norway, the tech giant reversed its decision and allowed the photo Terror of War to be seen on its pages.

In a letter, Ms Sandberg conceded that historical importance "sometimes ... outweighs the importance of keeping nudity off Facebook", after Ms Solberg had reposted the 1972 image and other iconic photos with black boxes covering parts of the images.