Facebook removes post with Declaration of Independence excerpt

USA TODAY NETWORKBrett Molina, USA TODAYPublished 1:18 p.m. ET July 5, 2018

The Declaration of Independence is arguably the most important document in U.S. history. It was also briefly in violation of Facebook's standards.

Through its Facebook page, The Vindicator — a local paper based in Liberty, Texas — wanted its audience to read the Declaration of Independence. It published a series of daily posts to the social network with excerpts from the document, with the final post going live on July 4.

The newspaper said one of those posts never appeared on its page because Facebook had it removed for going against hate speech standards. 

Casey Stinnett, managing editor of The Vindicator, said he believes a portion of the excerpt containing the term "Indian savages" may have sparked the post's removal.

This is how that excerpt reads: "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

Facebook said it apologized to The Vindicator for mistakenly deleting the post, and has since restored it.

"The post was removed by mistake and restored as soon as we looked into it," read a statement from Facebook. "We process millions of reports each week, and sometimes we get things wrong."

This is not the first time Facebook's enforcement of standards has received pushback. In 2016, Facebook reinstated a Vietnam War-era image of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack after it was initially removed for violating standards.

"An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our Community Standards, and in some countries might even qualify as child pornography," Facebook wrote in 2016. "In this case, we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time."

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2018/07/05/facebook-removes-post-declaration-independence/759939002/