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In
September of this year, Facebook censored—and quickly reinstated—the
iconic 1972 photograph of a nude, nine-year-old girl fleeing a napalm
attack in Vietnam. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph is a defining
image of the horrors of the war and a catalyst for Western opposition.
Throughout history, images such as Napalm Girl, as the image has come to
be known, have emerged as powerful emblems of major news events and
social and political movements, giving a voice—and often a face—to
struggles or injustices that words sometimes can’t muster.