During a scorching, relentless wildfire season, Facebook has been flagging and removing dozens of posts containing links and screenshots from Watch Duty, a widely relied-upon wildfire alert app, as well as from federal and state agencies, according to interviews and Facebook conversations with nearly 20 residents, Facebook users and moderators, as well as employees from disaster response organizations. And it’s not happening just to people in Hutchinson’s rural and extremely fire-prone community 135 miles north of San Francisco but to volunteer responders, fire and sheriff departments, news stations and disaster nonprofit workers across California and in other states, according to screenshots.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    TBF the warnings are unsolicited automated messages. I don’t think FaceBook should have the authority to filter them but I can certainly understand how it happened.

    • blubfisch@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 months ago

      In the article it does not seem like automated messages. Rather guess that their fake news detection triggered, because links to these government sites spiked even though the sites were seldom mentioned before.