When a person passes away, their Facebook profile becomes a place where their friends and families can share their messages of love and remember the good times. However, after 20-year-old Hollie Gazzard was killed by her ex-boyfriend, Asher Maslin, nine pictures of them together remained live on her profile. Hollie’s father Nick Gazzard asked Facebook to remove the photos that make him feel “sick,” but Facebook is refusing to. Gazzard, 50, told the BBC’s Inside Out West:
“It makes me feel sick when I look at those photos, and to be truthful I try not to go into her Facebook site as I get quite distressed by it.”
After Hollie Gazzard ended her relationship with Asher Maslin back in February of last year, he showed up at the hairdressing salon where she worked at in Gloucester with a carving knife. He stabbed her 14 times in front of her colleagues and customers, and she died in the hospital from her injuries.
Five months after her murder, Maslin was sentenced to life in prison for carrying out the attack.
A Facebook spokesperson talked about their decision to leave the photos of Hollie and Asher together was part of their policy.
“We memorialise accounts to provide a place of remembrance and maintain the profile as it was when the person passed away.
“We understand in tragic cases such as this it may mean there are sometimes painful reminders but memorialized accounts are designed to preserve the privacy of the deceased.”
What do you think? Should Facebook just remove the distressing photos or would this open up a can of worms for other requests?
