Facebook is issuing a patch after eagle-eyed users on X noticed that a photo of former US President Donald Trump was being censored by mistake.
The now famous photo of Trump putting his fist in the air at length attempt on his life earlier this month in Pennsylvania was incorrectly labeled “amended.”
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“Independent fact-checkers reviewed a similar photo and said it was altered in a way that could mislead people,” read a message on screens below the image.
However, the photo in question has not been altered and was originally taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci and distributed by AP.
In response to the objection, Dani Lever, director of public relations at Facebook's parent company Meta, wrote to X that the tag was “a mistake” and that the message was supposed to appear on a different, altered version of the image.
This was a mistake. This fact check was initially applied to an edited photo showing 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 error. https://t.co/y613GuuJpV
— Dani Lever (@Dani_Lever) July 29, 2024
“In some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the actual photo. This has been fixed and we apologize for the error,” Lever wrote on X.
Wrong censorship is coming weeks behind the technology leaders expressed their good wishes for Trump's recovery after the assassination attempt, including Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“This is such a sad day for our country,” Zuckerberg said at the time. “Political violence undermines democracy and must always be punished.”
Zuckerberg is not affiliated with any political party, although a 2019 time The report revealed that he was secretly recommending potential hires to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's 2020 Democratic presidential campaign team.