Social Media News - Facebook pro beheading?

Facebook caused quite a stir this week when it was revealed that they were going to accept previously banned videos back onto Facebook timelines again. This has caused a lot of shock and horror as videos of people being beheaded, decapitated and brutally hurt will now surface for the Facebook world to see. With Facebook's new rules being implemented its hard to see where they draw the line on what is allowed to be shown on their site as nudity is still banned.

No one is quite sure what made Facebook change its mind on their rules, but they have come out and said they don't want to decide what people choose to watch. However, they have increased warnings on these videos, so it is by your own will that you choose to watch these videos. It still asks the question: should these videos be allowed to be seen on a social media site? David Cameron British Prime Minister has also condemned the new ruling and labelled it "irresponsible".

Facebook has since contacted Mr Cameron and advised him about their warnings process for these specific videos. Mr Cameron does make a great point about parents being worried about what their children are able to access via Facebook. Perhaps Facebook will have to change its policy and ban these videos from accounts of under 18's and then create a verification process for future videos which will be deemed acceptable for an age specific audience.

This morning, however, Facebook deleted a video of a woman being beheaded after a mass amount of complaints. But again issued the same response about the warnings process and they didn't want to decide on what people viewed, and that the public should be given the chance to condemn these videos by commenting on them. On the other hand, this just brings up more factors.

This image was taken from the video that was taken down this morning but with Facebook wanting its users to condemn these videos. But what happens if it goes the other way? If people start to celebrate these acts of violence, what would Facebook's stance be then?

In conclusion, I believe that all these violent videos should be removed by Facebook and all users posting these videos should also be banned. For anyone to view these horrific acts and then have the chance to celebrate it should never be allowed. For example, if someone was to bomb Facebook headquarters and then post it on their site, I presume this video will be removed almost instantly. Even before anyone could comment on this act, so I don't know why they have taken this stance with this type of video. In the future, I would love to see new law and legislation that would ban social media sites from actually showing any videos of violence. But I don't believe this will ever be possible, and so it is really down to the sites themselves to get tough on these videos.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts on the videos, and do you think they have a place on Facebook?