If you’ve been on Facebook for a reasonable length of time, you’ve probably had a post removed thanks to the overbearing automated moderation systems the company has in place. According to BBC News, Facebook’s systems went a little overboard recently after a member of a group, who was selling hats, listed the collection point as Plymouth Hoe, a historical location in the British city, Plymouth.
Once the woman had made the comments in the ‘Don’t Dump it, Plymouth and Surrounding areas’ Facebook group, the admin started receiving notifications from Facebook demanding that the comment be removed because it was a violation of the site’s community standards on harassment and bullying.
The group’s admin, Dawn Lapthorn, told the BBC that she had heard of other groups being closed down for not acting on the automated notifications and explained that she had worked too hard on her 26,000 member group to not acting on the warnings and subsequently blocked the poster from the group.
Facebook put out a statement about the incident explaining that the automated systems had made a mistake and that the company apologises to those who were affected. A spokesperson said that the company is now taking steps to rectify the error so other members don’t run into the same problem.
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