Facebook Faces Backlash for Marking Coronavirus Posts as Spam
Facebook has been flagging posts related to the COVID-19 as spam, The Verge reports after discovering user complaints on Twitter. Facebook’s vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, has since confirmed that the error was due to a bug in the company’s anti-spam system.
Taking to Twitter, Rosen pointed out that the bug and the company’s decision to have content moderators work from home (which Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former chief security officer, said could affect changes in its moderation system) were unrelated.
In a follow-up tweet, Rosen added that Facebook has restored all the posts that were incorrectly removed. Read below.
On Tuesday, users took to Twitter to complain about the issue, stating that the social network notified them that their posts violated community standards, even if the news was shared from reputable sources. Check the tweets below.
In late February, Facebook made plans to crack down on posts that peddle lies about the outbreak in an attempt to curtail the spread of misinformation and fearmongering.
