Facebook wrongly censored a photograph of former President Donald Trump raising his fist after surviving an assassination attempt, a company official said.
Facebook users shared screenshots showing that when they posted the photograph, they were told that they had shared an “altered photo.”
“Independent fact-checkers reviewed a similar photo and said it was altered in a way that could mislead people,” the message stated. “Facebook determined your post has the same altered photo and added a notice to the post.”
Users were also told that people who share false information might see their posts ranked lower in Facebook’s feed “so other people are less likely to see them.”
People took to social media platform X, a Facebook competitor, to complain about being warned despite sharing a legitimate photo without alteration.
Dani Lever, a Facebook spokeswoman, acknowledged in an X post that the photo was being wrongly censored.
“This was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the Secret Service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo,” she wrote. “This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake.”
Facebook and other Meta-owned properties use a third-party fact-checking network that enables the company to “take action and reduce the spread of problematic content” across its apps, Meta states on its website.
Some conservatives said that the censorship should prompt lawmakers to question Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“He needs to be dragged in front of Congress to answer for this,” Chaya Raichik wrote on the account that she runs called “Libs of TikTok.”
The photograph in question, taken shortly after former President Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, shows the former president raising a fist as he’s surrounded closely by Secret Service agents. None of the agents is smiling.
Soon after the photo was taken, the former president was ushered into an armored vehicle and transported away from the scene.
Meta’s artificial intelligence has been telling some users that the assassination attempt was fictional, according to screenshots shared online.
“We know people have been seeing incomplete, inconsistent, or out of date information on this topic,“ a Meta spokesperson told news outlets in a statement. ”We’re in the process of implementing a fix to provide more up-to-date responses for inquiries, and it is possible people may continue to see inaccurate responses in the meantime.”
