Facebook Blames a Bug for the Erroneous Removal of Users' Posts

References to coronavirus and links to legitimate news affected

Facebook blamed a glitch in its automated systems that filter out spam for a host of complaints Tuesday night about posts on topics including the coronavirus being removed despite not violating its terms of service.

Users of the social network turned to Facebook and Twitter to complain about the erroneous removals of posts, many of which referenced COVID-19 or contained links to legitimate news sources.

In one example, Jodi Rudoren, editor in chief of The Forward, a media company geared toward Jews in America, said in a tweet that its content was removed from its own pages, individuals’ pages and organic shares “just as news was breaking of coronavirus in Hasidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn.”

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