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Facebook Accidentally Deletes Palin's Anti-Mosque Post, Promptly Apologizes

by Amar Toor on July 23, 2010 at 02:20 PM

45 Park Place Mosque
A few days ago, Republican prizefighter Sarah Palin posted a Facebook note titled 'An Intolerable Mistake on Hallowed Ground.' In the statement, Palin railed against a proposal to build a new mosque near the site of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, comparing the proposed construction to a "stab in the heart" for many Americans. [Ed. Note: As New Yorkers who pass this daily, we'd like to add that the building is four blocks away from Ground Zero, two stories tall and has been abandoned for years.] Much like pretty much anything else she says, Palin's plea soon garnered a lot of attention and feedback from her online followers -- until, that is, Facebook mysteriously deleted it.

As the Huffintgon Post reports, Facebook has now apologized for erasing Palin's post, which, according to site spokesman Andrew Noyes, was inadvertently swept away by Facebook's "automated system." "The note in question did not violate our content standards but was removed by an automated system," Noyes said in a statement provided to CNN. "We're always working to improve our processes and we apologize for any inconvenience this caused." Palin, for her part, added a characteristically redundant note at the end of her re-posted statement, telling her fans, "The original post of this statement (on July 20, 2010) was somehow unintentionally deleted by mistake or technical glitch."

Meanwhile, Yahoo! News is reporting that a blogger on Tumblr is taking credit for toppling the Republican's note, claiming he flagged the post as hate speech. A company spokesman told Yahoo!'s Upshot that Facebook was still investigating to see if a user complaint did indeed trigger the site's automated deletion system, adding that the system is in place to maintain a "safe and trusted environment" online.

This isn't the first time Facebook's run into problems because of its automated screening practices. A few weeks ago, for example, the site unintentionally deleted a group called 'Boycott BP,' only to reinstate it shortly thereafter. Technical difficulties aside, Facebook should at least be ready to "refudiate" the attacks against its liberal-bias that are sure to follow. [From: HuffPo, CNN and Yahoo!]

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Tags: censorship, facebook, HateSpeech, history, islam, mosque, palin, religion, sarah palin, SarahPalin, september11, SocialNetworking, top, wtc

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