Facebook: Palin mosque post removed by ‘automated system’

A Facebook post by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin expressing opposition to a mosque in New York was temporarily removed from the site today by an "automated system," a Facebook spokesman confirmed to The Upshot.

"The note in question did not violate our content standards but was removed by an automated system," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes wrote in an email. "We're always working to improve our processes and we apologize for any inconvenience this caused."

Presumably Noyes means the automatic system that flags user complaints, though he wouldn't confirm that. Earlier, Noyes said Facebook was "investigating this incident to determine whether the content in question was removed by an automated system as a result of user reports that it violated our terms."

Noyes declined to say if there were any other automated systems that remove content other than the one that tracks user complaints.

Palin wrote in the post that she opposed the building of a new mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York.

A blogger on the Tumblr platform claimed credit for the post's temporary disappearance, saying he started an Internet campaign to flag the post as hate speech. A Facebook feature allows users to confidentially report content for perceived violations including "racist/hate speech."