Facebook thought Declaration of Independence quotes were hate speech (Not a Joke or Snark)

[Stonepounder]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-thought-declaration-of-independence-quotes-were-hate-speech/

Facebook thought Declaration of Independence quotes were hate speech

It seems all content is not created equal. A Facebook algorithm categorized parts of the Declaration of Independence as hate speech and took down excerpts of it ahead of the Fourth of July.

An editor for the Liberty County Vindicator, a community newspaper in Texas, said Facebook took action after the paper started posting the text of the historic document.

The Vindicator posted the Declaration of Independence in 12 parts on its Facebook page leading up the nation's birthday. Facebook sent a notice that one of those parts "goes against our standards on hate speech."

According to the Vindicator, Facebook flagged a passage that included the phrase "merciless Indian savages" at the end of a long rebuke of King George III. After the Declaration's famous opening lines about all men being created equal and having an inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it goes on to list 27 specific grievances against the king's rule. The last of those reads: "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

The paper suspected that this quote is the reason Facebook blocked the post, although the social media company did not cite a specific reason.

"It is a very great irony that the words of Thomas Jefferson should now be censored in America," editor Casey Stinnett wrote on the Vindicator website Monday.

Note: Facebook did restore the deleted content the next day and issued an apology.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. I recall that many years ago, as in the 1970s,

people were asked to sign statements which were actually from the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, and most of the time people would refuse to sign, completely ignorant of the source.

Which says a lot about the state of education in this country.