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From Breitbart: 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.
The iconic image that has since gone viral was taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci.
Prominent X/Twitter user “End Wokeness” posted an alert about the photo being censored Monday morning, writing, “BREAKING: Facebook is now censoring the iconic image of Trump’s defiant fist. It’s now flagged as MISINFORMATION.”
BREAKING: Facebook is now censoring the iconic image of Trump’s defiant fist
It’s now flagged as MISINFORMATION pic.twitter.com/ePUl5kuMw6
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 29, 2024
In a social media post on Monday, Dani Lever, a spokesperson for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, responded to the outrage over the photo being censored.
“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,” Lever wrote.
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
This is absolutely unacceptable. @facebook is now trying to censor the Trump assassination photo claiming the agents are “smiling”. My photo was never altered and doesn’t show any agent smiling. This is full on censorship. pic.twitter.com/uispkEdf2d
— Kyla Awalt (@KylaAwalt) July 29, 2024
Trump will forever be defined by this photo. That’s what drives his enemies crazy. They’ve worked for years to define him in their terms. But this will be the picture in the history books 300 years from now. We’re all defined by moments, and this is Trump’s. pic.twitter.com/pAu02wkWkp
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 17, 2024
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