Facebook Accidentally Deletes Un-Fake News

Users said anti-spam filter blocked links to coronavirus stories
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 18, 2020 12:03 AM CDT
Facebook Says Bug Deleted Authentic Coronavirus News
Facebook says a bug in its anti-spam system blocked the publication of links to news stories about the coronavirus.   (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

Facebook says a bug in its anti-spam system temporarily blocked the publication of links to news stories about the coronavirus. Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, said Tuesday that the company was working on a fix for the problem. Users complained that links to news stories about school closings and other information related to the virus outbreak were blocked by the company's automated system, the AP reports. Later on Tuesday, Rosen tweeted that Facebook had restored all the incorrectly deleted posts, which also covered topics beyond the coronavirus. Rosen said the problems were unrelated to any changes in Facebook's content-moderator workforce. The company reportedly sent its human moderators home this week because of the coronavirus outbreak. (More Facebook stories.)

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