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Madison County Sheriff's Office Facebook page suspended after flag post
Caption: Madison County Sheriff's Office Facebook page suspended after flag post, sheriff says
Harwood said authorities discovered their Facebook page was suspended Tuesday, following a post the department made in defense of the American flag and a local business.
In the lengthy Facebook post, the Madison County Sheriff's Office talks about the meaning of the American flag, including a well-known poem by Ruth Apperson Rous titled, "I am the Flag."
Harwood showed News13 a screenshot of the only reasoning he said the department has received from Facebook regarding the blocking, which reads, "If you think this doesn't go against our Community Standards, let us know."
Harwood said the department made the flag post in support of the owner of Madison Pharmacy, who was criticized by a member of the community for flying an American flag outside her business. He said it's unbelievable that such a post would get taken down by Facebook.
"Yeah, I'm offended. My God, we've got lives that have been lost, battles that have been fought for this country, for the United States of America," Harwood said.
He said the suspension is concerning, because the department uses Facebook to share vital information with the community.
"It's not going to affect the day-to-day operations of this office one bit. What it is going to affect is folks in Western North Carolina receiving pertinent information that they need in a timely fashion," Harwood said.
He said Facebook has become a useful avenue for sharing public safety information.
"If we've got an armed robbery, if we've got a rape suspect running up and down the roads, that's always been, Facebook has been a very informative website, social media site we could go to and disseminate that information," Harwood said. "Sure, it's concerning. But who wants to put up with this kind of junk?"
The Madison County Sheriff's Office won't be putting up with it any longer, the sheriff said.
"Oh, I'm done with Facebook. I know Facebook won't shut down, but the Madison County Sheriff's Office is done with Facebook," he said. "It's time we stand up and say, 'Hey, we've had enough.'"
He said the department plans to create its own website to disseminate important information and will continue to rely on local media partners.
"We're fixing to celebrate Independence Day and people are offended about flying the flag. I don't understand," Harwood said.
But it may not have been a someone who suspended the office's Facebook page, but rather a something. Scott Rader, an associate professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Western Carolina University, said Facebook doesn't have enough people to monitor all the content on its platform, so it has an algorithm that pores through content, likely searching for key words or phrases that might violate its "Community Standards." He said that could be what's to blame here.
"I think there's a good likelihood that what's happened here is the idea that a software algorithm has caught something that it thinks in some way violates Facebook's community guidelines. And so, it's an automatic process that's happened is my suspicion," Rader said.
After reading screenshots of the now-removed post, Rader said he doesn't see what could be found offensive about it, no matter your political leaning.
"I don't believe, in my opinion, l that any reasonable person would find a problem with that post," Rader said.
Rader said social media censorship is on the increase.
"The interesting issue that you're going to run into increasingly is that censorship has become more common in the past year," Rader said.
While Facebook is a private entity that largely has a right to control the information on its network, Rader said it gets tricky when the platform begins censoring government accounts, particularly ones that disseminate important information, like the Madison County Sheriff's Office. He said Facebook may need to reexamine its algorithm and believes that will likely happen soon, as more and more complaints of censorship arise.
"If you think of it like a dial, Facebook can basically increase or decrease the scrutiny, if you will, of the algorithm in terms of what it takes down," Rader said. "They should probably go back and look at that algorithm, in my opinion, and see what's causing these, what we would call a false positive, in other words, something was taken down that shouldn't have been," he said.
News13 has reached out to Facebook's public relations team for comment. This story will be updated once we hear back.
Madison County Sheriff's Office Facebook page suspended after flag post
Caption: Madison County Sheriff's Office Facebook page suspended after flag post, sheriff says
Harwood said authorities discovered their Facebook page was suspended Tuesday, following a post the department made in defense of the American flag and a local business.
In the lengthy Facebook post, the Madison County Sheriff's Office talks about the meaning of the American flag, including a well-known poem by Ruth Apperson Rous titled, "I am the Flag."
Harwood showed News13 a screenshot of the only reasoning he said the department has received from Facebook regarding the blocking, which reads, "If you think this doesn't go against our Community Standards, let us know."
Harwood said the department made the flag post in support of the owner of Madison Pharmacy, who was criticized by a member of the community for flying an American flag outside her business. He said it's unbelievable that such a post would get taken down by Facebook.
"Yeah, I'm offended. My God, we've got lives that have been lost, battles that have been fought for this country, for the United States of America," Harwood said.
He said the suspension is concerning, because the department uses Facebook to share vital information with the community.
"It's not going to affect the day-to-day operations of this office one bit. What it is going to affect is folks in Western North Carolina receiving pertinent information that they need in a timely fashion," Harwood said.
He said Facebook has become a useful avenue for sharing public safety information.
"If we've got an armed robbery, if we've got a rape suspect running up and down the roads, that's always been, Facebook has been a very informative website, social media site we could go to and disseminate that information," Harwood said. "Sure, it's concerning. But who wants to put up with this kind of junk?"
The Madison County Sheriff's Office won't be putting up with it any longer, the sheriff said.
"Oh, I'm done with Facebook. I know Facebook won't shut down, but the Madison County Sheriff's Office is done with Facebook," he said. "It's time we stand up and say, 'Hey, we've had enough.'"
He said the department plans to create its own website to disseminate important information and will continue to rely on local media partners.
"We're fixing to celebrate Independence Day and people are offended about flying the flag. I don't understand," Harwood said.
But it may not have been a someone who suspended the office's Facebook page, but rather a something. Scott Rader, an associate professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Western Carolina University, said Facebook doesn't have enough people to monitor all the content on its platform, so it has an algorithm that pores through content, likely searching for key words or phrases that might violate its "Community Standards." He said that could be what's to blame here.
"I think there's a good likelihood that what's happened here is the idea that a software algorithm has caught something that it thinks in some way violates Facebook's community guidelines. And so, it's an automatic process that's happened is my suspicion," Rader said.
After reading screenshots of the now-removed post, Rader said he doesn't see what could be found offensive about it, no matter your political leaning.
"I don't believe, in my opinion, l that any reasonable person would find a problem with that post," Rader said.
Rader said social media censorship is on the increase.
"The interesting issue that you're going to run into increasingly is that censorship has become more common in the past year," Rader said.
While Facebook is a private entity that largely has a right to control the information on its network, Rader said it gets tricky when the platform begins censoring government accounts, particularly ones that disseminate important information, like the Madison County Sheriff's Office. He said Facebook may need to reexamine its algorithm and believes that will likely happen soon, as more and more complaints of censorship arise.
"If you think of it like a dial, Facebook can basically increase or decrease the scrutiny, if you will, of the algorithm in terms of what it takes down," Rader said. "They should probably go back and look at that algorithm, in my opinion, and see what's causing these, what we would call a false positive, in other words, something was taken down that shouldn't have been," he said.
News13 has reached out to Facebook's public relations team for comment. This story will be updated once we hear back.
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