The daring-dudes at Dangerous Minds would like to clarify a few things about the picture of two men kissing that has caused quite the tempestuous rattling of Facebook's tea-cup. In a blog post, they said that a private citizen -- not Facebook -- removed the pic.
But Gawker and other sites say the photo was removed by Facebook for violating the network's "state of rights and responsibilities." Gawker posted an e-mail it says Dangerous Mind's Richard Metzger received from Facebook explaining why it was removed.
Since Facebook is chock-full of photos of people of the opposite sex kissing, Facebook is now facing allegations of homophobia. Facebook did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The origination of the pic/page isn't in dispute. Two men were bounced from an English pub for kissing. A resulting protest in the form of a kiss-in happened. Metzger posted the pic, and received an e-mail from Facebook.
The FB event page for the Jon Snow Kiss-In was, indeed, removed from public view -- but by the event's creator, not Facebook, according to Dangerous Minds. Turns out some trolls found it and were posting naughty things.
Here's the kicker-of-a-contention: Dangerous Minds says the picture itself was chosen for it's non-racy nature (don't ya know) and is a promotional still from an English soap called "Eastenders." Ironically enough, the scandal over the pic started in the U.K.
Bottom line: If Facebook pulled the pic because two boys were kissing, we've got ourselves a scandal. If not, then it's nothing and we should all get back to work.
