Facebook Blocks St. Augustine Quote, Labels It Hate Speech
A blogger reports Facebook has repeatedly banned a quote from St. Augustine of Hippo, a theologian and philosopher from the fifth century, every time he’s posted it, labeling it has “hate speech.”
Domenico Bettinelli writes: “Facebook has repeatedly banned a quote from St. Augustine every time I’ve posted it. And it’s not some fire and brimstone ‘Sinners are going to hell!’ quote, but in fact, quite the opposite.”
After noticing that two priests had also been censored by the social media giant for posting Augustine’s quote, Bettinelli decided to post the same quote to his wall last week. It resulted in a warning that his post violated Facebook’s “Community Standards on hate speech.”
The quote judged by Facebook to be hate-filled is:
“Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon. But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.”
Bettinelli questioned the social media giant’s algorithm that made the incorrect determination, writing “the quote itself is challenging but inoffensive.”
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