Facebook has admitted to wrongfully censoring an iconic photograph of former President Donald J. Trump moments after the July 13 attempt on his life. The image, captured by an Associated Press photographer, depicts Trump with a bloodied face and raised fist, with the American flag flying behind him. Facebook fact-checkers had been flagging the photo, claiming it was altered.
Facebook contends the censorship was supposed to target a manipulated version of the image, which falsely showed Secret Service agents smiling as they surrounded Trump. However, the original, authentic photograph was also censored.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, acknowledged the supposed mistake following public backlash. Communications Director Dani Lever stated, “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. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake.”
BREAKING: Facebook is now censoring the iconic image of Trump's defiant fist
It's now flagged as MISINFORMATION pic.twitter.com/ePUl5kuMw6
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 29, 2024
Facebook uses third-party fact-checkers and artificial intelligence (AI) software to monitor and control content on its platform. According to Meta, AI is used “to scale the work of fact-checkers by applying warning labels to duplicates of false claims and reducing their distribution.”
Meta and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has engaged in extensive election interference in the U.S., mostly through the funding of the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). Meanwhile, a report issued in April found that Facebook has directly interfered with and attempted to influence American elections 39 times since 2008.
In March, The National Pulse reported that an AI system deployed in Washington state erroneously flagged factually true stories as misinformation.