Facebook ‘bug’ mistakenly flags coronavirus news stories as spam
Facebook on Tuesday was marking legitimate coronavirus news as spam for some users, multiple media reports said.
Several news outlets reported that people have been getting a notification that they are breaking “Facebook’s Community Standards on spam” when they post stories from news outlets like Medium, BuzzFeed and USA Today.
The issue is happening because of a “bug in an anti-spam system,” said Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, according to The Verge.
“We’re on this - this is a bug in an anti-spam system, unrelated to any changes in our content moderator workforce,” Rosen said on Twitter. “We’re in the process of fixing and bringing all these posts back.”
We're on this - this is a bug in an anti-spam system, unrelated to any changes in our content moderator workforce. We're in the process of fixing and bringing all these posts back. More soon.
— Guy Rosen (@guyro) March 17, 2020
Facebook has sent many of its content moderators home as coronavirus spreads and is relying on automated software during this time, according to Business Insider.
“It looks like an anti-spam rule at FB is going haywire,” Alex Stamos, who formerly worked for Facebook, said on Twitter. “Facebook sent home content moderators yesterday, who generally can’t WFH (work from home) due to privacy commitments the company has made. We might be seeing the start of the ML (machine learning) going nuts with less human oversight.”
A Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company is looking into the issue and “working as quickly as possible to share information.”
“[I] can confirm at this point that we’re looking into the matter, can’t confirm what might be happening just yet,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch.
@elbuder - tell you know that @Facebook just removed the link I posted to your recent article in @TheAtlantic . "Your post goes against our Community Standards on spam," is the reason they gave. Upsetting that this important communication is considered by anyone as spam. pic.twitter.com/iYjgbXQNYB
— VJ Um Amel (@vj_um_amel) March 17, 2020
Facebook does not seem to know how many people have been flagged for spam, but several users have complained on social media.
“Your post goes against our Community Standards on spam,” the alert says. “No one else can see your post. We have these standards to prevent things like false advertising, fraud and security breaches.”
