Roger Ebert's the Latest Victim of Facebook's Censorship Problem

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When Facebook temporarily shut down the Facebook page of arguably the most well-known film critic in the world today, it was surprising but not at all uncharacteristic of the social network, which can't seem to find a consistent method of policing its site. Earlier today, the Facebook page of Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert was removed for violating the company's "terms of conditions" following a controversial tweet about Jackass star Ryan Dunn who died Monday in a car crash after posting a photo of himself drinking with friends an hour before the accident.

The tweet provoked a strong reaction from Dunn's friends and fans, most notably Jackass costar Bam Margera who tweeted "I lost my best friend, I have been crying hysterical for a full day and piece of shit roger ebert has the gall to put in his 2 cents." Ebert defended his tweet saying "He drank, he drove, 2 people died," though police have thus far only cited speed as the cause of the accident (autopsy results may take a week). Either way, the debate spilled over onto Ebert's Facebook page where some applauded the critic for addressing the issue of drunk driving while others used strong language to excoriate him (among the less profane remarks: "let the guy rest in peace, you really need to be an asshole the day of his death?" wrote a commenter). Then, approximately five hours ago, Facebook removed the post and Ebert received a notification others will find familiar:

It was an odd decision given that, by any reasonable standard, the commenters were debating a legitimate issue: the dangers of drunk driving versus the due sensitivity given to the relatives of the recently deceased. And sure enough, it turned out to be a mistake. When contacted by MSNBC a Facebook spokesperson said ""[t]he page was was removed in error" and the company was sorry "for the inconvenience." Sure enough, Ebert's page was restored with all the heated profanity intact.

The trouble is, there's no indication that Facebook is planning on reforming its broken censorship system. According to Facebook's FAQ page, a "Facebook administrator looks into each report thoroughly" when deciding whether to remove an offending item. It seems odd that a human being wouldn't think twice before deleting Roger Ebert's page. Yet a similar uproar occurred in April when Facebook deleted a photo of two fully-clothed men kissing, which it later apologized for. All it took was a third-party actor to flag the item as inappropriate and Facebook deleted it. Similarly, the website of Ars Technica was shutdown in April after a third party incorrectly claimed that Ars Technica had infringed on its copyrighted work. We've contacted Facebook asking if the company is considering reforming its censorship policies in light of the Ebert mishap. We'll update if we receive anything.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

The myriad Trump scandals can obscure the fact that they’re all elements of one massive tale of corruption.

The sheer volume of Trump scandals can seem difficult to keep track of.

There’s the ongoing special-counsel investigation into whether the Trump campaign aided a Russian campaign to aid Trump’s candidacy and defeat his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton; there’s the associated inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey, whom he had asked not to investigate his former national-security adviser; there are the president’s hush-money payments to women with whom he allegedly had extramarital affairs, made through his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and facilitated by corporate cash paid to influence the White House; there is his ongoing effort to interfere with the Russia inquiry and politicize federal law enforcement; there are the foreign governments that seem to be utilizing the president’s properties as vehicles for influencing administration policy; there’s the emerging evidence that Trump campaign officials sought aid not only from Russia, but from other foreign countries, which may have affected Trump’s foreign policy; there are the ongoing revelations of the president’s Cabinet officials’ misusing taxpayer funds; there is the accumulating evidence that administration decisions are made at the behest of private industry, in particular those in which Republican donors have significant interests.