Facebook Apologizes for Flagging Declaration of Independence as Hate Speech

Facebook has apologized to a Texas newspaper for flagging a post containing the text of the Declaration of Independence as hate speech, The Hill reports. 

Texas' Liberty County Vindicator posted selections of the text on its Facebook page in the past week, leading up to Independence Day on Wednesday. One portion of the document, which contains the words "merciless Indian savages," was removed.

"Perhaps had Thomas Jefferson written it as 'Native Americans at a challenging stage of cultural development' that would have been better. Unfortunately, Jefferson, like most British colonists of his day, did not hold an entirely friendly view of Native Americans," the newspaper's editor, Casey Stinnett, wrote on Monday.

He later wrote that Facebook sent the Vindicator an email admitting to making a "mistake" in removing the post.

"It looks like we made a mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn't go against our Community Standards. We want to apologize and let you know that we've restored your content and removed any blocks on your account related to this incorrect action."

Stinnett notes, "The Vindicator extends its thanks to Facebook. We never doubted Facebook would fix it, but neither did we doubt the usefulness of our fussing about it a little."

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