As a way of celebrating Independence Day, The Vindicator thought it would be appropriate to publish the Declaration of Independence on Facebook. To make the reading of it more manageable online, the outlet broke the famous founding document into twelve “bite-sized” segments and posted one a day over a period of 12 days, ending on July 4. But after posting the tenth segment, The Vindicator received a notice from Facebook informing them that the post “goes against our standards on hate speech” and had been blocked.
After the outlet complained about the censorship, Facebook restored the post on the evening of July 3, explaining that its automated “Community Standards” checker had incorrectly flagged the post. While Facebook’s relatively prompt reversal was welcomed, the incident highlights how information is handled on the platform and what types of expression can be blocked.
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