Facebook classifies an image of the Spanish submarine S-80 as 'violent content'

@ElentirENG ES 3·16·2024 · 11:54 0

Censorship on Meta's social networks (Facebook and Instagram) is reaching a degree of surrealism that already deserves an article.

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In recent months, Contando Estrelas has been suffering from Facebook's cruelty with its publications, with constant complaints against what the technology of that social network (that is, the algorithms they use to detect possible infractions) interprets as "violent content." In the last few hours, Facebook has marked me like this a post about the Spanish submarine S-80 made on March 12. In its notice, Facebook tells me the following:

Our technology has shown that this post is similar to others that violate our Community Guidelines on Violent and Graphic Content.

We don't allow people on Facebook to share content that depicts graphic violence.

This is the screenshot of the report:

The consequence of Facebook tagging a post like this is that your followers will see it lower on their walls, or perhaps not see it at all. For a website with a certain audience, as is the case of Contando Estrelas, this represents a considerable loss of visits. Additionally, people who share those posts receive similar notifications, so Facebook is discouraging people from sharing posts from this website.

Of course, I have asked for a review. It's been ten hours and I'm still waiting for that review. Before they were relatively fast. Now they take longer and longer. I have to keep an eye on these reports every day, because lately they happen almost daily. The sequence is always the same: Facebook reports a publication to me, I ask for a review and they always agree with me, and the next day or two days it reports another publication to me. And start again. This means spending precious time every day asking Facebook for reviews of purely absurd censorship. Let's see more examples.

In December I published this entry with an image of a painting by the great Spanish painter Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau, about the famous Miracle of Empel. As you can see in this screenshot, Facebook interpreted it as "violent content." Why? No idea.

Also in December, Facebook considered this image of the 23-F coup d'état "violent content." Obviously, the image does not show a hippie concert, but it is a photo about a historical event. Is this also a reason for censorship?

In early February, what bothered Facebook was this photo of a Leopard 2A4. The tank doesn't even appear firing. Maybe Facebook's algorithm thought it was going too fast, or maybe it just hates all photos of tanks.

On February 19, I received a new censorship for this famous photo of the Normandy Landings. This is, once again, a historical photo. Is it not possible to post these types of images on Facebook without suffering censorship?

On March 14, Facebook was upset by this photo of one of the trains from the 11-M attacks. It is a photo that has appeared in many media outlets. I tried to choose a photo in which no corpses were seen, not even covered with sheets, but even then they censor you.

The most ridiculous thing is what happened to me this week. Facebook also considered "violent content" this image of an Antarctic landscape that I published this Thursday. What is there in this image that can even remotely be interpreted as violence?

In 2018, a documentary denounced that Facebook's algorithm is manipulated to suppress users with conservative ideas, that is, those who have an ideological line that does not coincide with that of the owner of that network social, Mark Zuckerberg. Contando Estrelas is a conservative-liberal, Catholic and pro-life blog. It has everything to be the target of that teaching. There are the examples, in case anyone has doubts. My question for Facebook is: do left-wing websites suffer from as many erroneous reports as this blog? Or is it just a coincidence?

+ UPDATED 7:58 p.m.: Facebook once again censors another of my entries, this time for an image of a cemetery. Does Facebook consider crosses as "violent content? I have asked for a review again, without They have still answered all the questions I asked for last night.

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Main photo: Armada Española.