Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser, who is based in Beijing, posted an article about the self-immolation of a Tibetan monk in Sichuan Province this week, on her Facebook page. Her post included a link to a video about the monk, Kalsang Yeshi, who set himself on fire in front of a police station on December 23. She was surprised to see her post had been deleted by Facebook.
The New York Times published Facebook’s statement regarding the removal of the post: “Facebook has long been a place where people share things and experiences. Sometimes, those experiences involve violence and graphic videos. We work hard to balance expression and safety. However, since some people object to graphic videos, we are working to give people additional control over the content they see. This may include warning them in advance that the image they are about to see contains graphic content. We do not currently have these tools available and as a result we have removed this content.”
