Facebook removed an NPR article posted to their platform Wednesday morning, claiming it was spam. The article itself questioned the number of school shootings that actually took place during the 2015–2016 school year.
The article, which was published on Monday, is titled, “The School Shootings That Weren’t.”
It discussed 235 school shootings counted by the Federal Government during the 2015–2016 school year. NPR reporters tried to independently verify that all of these actually occurred, they could only confirm 11. Of the 235 school shootings recorded by the government, 161 told NPR that no shooting actually occurred, and the other 71 school shootings could not be confirmed.
When Sean Malone shared the article on Facebook, however, it was removed because “it looks like spam and [it] doesn’t follow our Community Standards.”
“We work hard to limit the spread of commercial spam to prevent false advertising, fraud, and security breaches, all of which detract from people’s ability to share and connect. We do not allow people to use misleading or inaccurate information to collect likes, followers, or shares,” Facebook’s community standards say in regards to spam.
The social media platform has continued to face censorship issues.
Last week, Facebook appeared to flag a New York Post article about supporters of President Donald Trump as “spam.” Post columnist Salena Zito published an article explaining why Trump supporters aren’t bothered by the criminal convictions of Trump allies Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. (RELATED: Facebook Flags New York Post Article About Trump Voters As ‘Spam’)
Facebook did not provide a comment by the time this article was published.
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