A Meta spokesperson confirmed on Monday that Facebook had erroneously censored the iconic photo of former President Donald Trump raising his fist with blood on his face after the July 13 assassination attempt at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In a viral post on X, formerly Twitter, End Wokeness shared photos that showed Facebook censoring the iconic image of the former president and warning a social media user, “Independent fact-checkers reviewed a similar photo and said it was altered in a way that could mislead people.”
“Facebook is now censoring the iconic image of Trump’s defiant fist,” End Wokeness tweeted. “It’s now flagged as MISINFORMATION.”
According to The Post Millennial, the iconic photo was captured as Trump raised his fist and said, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as Secret Service agents escorted him off the stage after the former president was shot in the ear.
The Post Millennial reported that the photo, which was captured by an Associated Press photographer, went viral on social media before the picture was edited and falsely portrayed Secret Service agents as “smiling as they surround[ed] him after the shooting.”
However, Facebook not only censored the edited version of the photo from the assassination attempt, but the Meta-based company also censored the original version of the iconic photo.
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Following widespread backlash over the censorship of the iconic photo, Meta Public Affairs Director Dani Lever released a statement, saying, “This was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake.”
Just days after the assassination attempt against Trump, USA Today fact-checked the images of Secret Service agents smiling as they surrounded the former president. USA Today listed the photo as “altered” while confirming that the original image was accurate.
“None of the agents in the original image are smiling as they surround Trump, who has blood on his face and his right arm in the air,” USA Today’s fact check noted. “The image – which was captured by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci and distributed by the AP – appeared with coverage of the shooting by CNN, The Atlantic, Business Insider and many other legitimate news outlets.”
According to Meta’s website, the company uses third-party fact-checkers that are certified under the International Fact-Checking Network to “fight the spread of misinformation.” The company’s website also explains that it uses artificial intelligence to apply warning labels to duplicates of false claims.
