Facebook Censors Iconic Trump Picture as ‘Altered Image,’ then Admits ‘Error’
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Facebook has acknowledged an alleged “mistake” in censoring an iconic image of former President Donald Trump following the July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, sparking renewed debate over social media content moderation practices. Meta labeled the famous photo as an “altered image,” only later admitting it was a “mistake.”
The New York Post reports that Facebook has admitted to “mistakenly” censoring the famous image of former President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the July 13 assassination attempt. The image, which depicted Trump with a raised fist and blood streaming down his face, was initially flagged as an “altered image” on the platform.
The incident came to light when a user with the handle “End Wokeness” shared the image on Facebook, only to face threats of deplatforming. The censorship quickly drew attention from conservative circles, with influencer Charlie Kirk calling out the platform for preventing users from sharing the photo.
Responding to the criticism, Dani Lever, a spokesperson for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, acknowledged the error on Monday. “Yes, this was an error,” Lever stated on X (formerly known as Twitter). She explained that the fact-check was initially applied to a doctored version of the photo showing Secret Service agents smiling, and the system incorrectly extended this fact-check to the authentic image.
Yes, 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.
— Dani Lever (@Dani_Lever) July 29, 2024
Lever assured that the issue had been rectified and apologized for the mistake. However, the explanation was met with skepticism from some users on X/Twitter, with comments suggesting a perceived pattern of errors favoring one political direction.
This incident is not isolated, as Meta has faced criticism from Trump supporters on multiple fronts. The company’s AI chatbot, Meta AI, referred to the assassination attempt as “fictional” when prompted for details about the event. Screenshots shared by X users showed inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate responses from the chatbot regarding the incident.
A Meta spokesperson addressed these concerns, stating, “We know people have been seeing incomplete, inconsistent, or out of date information on this topic. We’re in the process of implementing a fix to provide more up-to-date responses for inquiries.”
The controversy has extended beyond Meta, with Google also facing scrutiny. Users noted that Google’s Autocomplete function failed to generate results for searches related to the Trump assassination attempt. This observation led to accusations of potential bias, with Donald Trump Jr. characterizing it as “intentional election interference” to favor Vice President Kamala Harris.
These incidents have reignited discussions about the role of big tech companies in information dissemination and their potential influence on political discourse. It’s worth noting that major tech platforms had previously banned Trump from their platforms following the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, though these bans have since been reversed.
The current controversies also echo previous instances of content moderation decisions impacting political news, such as the limitations placed on the distribution of reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop by both Twitter (now X) and Facebook in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
Read more at the New York Post here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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