Facebook has apologised for removing this cancer awareness video

Facebook has issued an apology for removing a Swedish video on breast cancer awareness and deeming the images offensive.

The video from Cancerfonden, the Swedish Cancer Society, showed animated figures of women with their breasts represented by pink circles, with the aim of explaining to women how to detect suspicious lumps.

Facebook later apologised for the blunder and said the images were now available:

"We're very sorry, our team processes millions of advertising images each week, and in some instances we incorrectly prohibit ads," a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement to Mashable.

"This image does not violate our ad policies. We apologise for the error and have let the advertiser know we are approving their ads."

Earlier Facebook removed the video saying the images were "offensive". Cancerfonden said it had tried in vain to get in touch with the company.

It later wrote an open letter to Facebook explaining that the campaign "was not meant to offend."

"We understand that you have to have rules about the content published on your platform. But you must also understand that one of our main tasks is to spread important information about cancer – in this case breast cancer," it said.

"After trying to meet your control for several days without success, we have now come up with a solution that will hopefully make you happy: Two pink squares!"

All ads on Facebook must not contain "nudity, depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative", according to the company's ad policy.

The ad policy is separate from the company's community standards and Mashable understands the erroneous disapproval was related to the ads, not the content policies.

Facebook's community standards, instead, “restrict[s] some images of female breasts if they include the nipple” but “always allow[s] photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring.”

Facebook came under fire last month for removing the famous "napalm girl" photo published by Norway's largest newspaper saying it showed nudity.

It later agreed to reinstate the picture. 

"Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal, so we have decided to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.