Facebook targeting Trump? Meta calls July 13 assassination attempt 'fictional event' and 'misinformation'

Facebook has acknowledged that it mistakenly censored the iconic image of former President Donald Trump taken shortly after the July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. The image that went viral showing Trump defiantly raising his fist and shouting 'fight' even as blood streams down his face, was flagged as misinformation on Meta's Facebook.

The controversy surrounding Facebook is further compounded by the fact that Meta's chatbot, Meta AI, incorrectly referred to the assassination attempt as "fictional" in some responses. 

Facebook and censorship

A Facebook user who goes by the username 'End Wokeness' reported that he even faced threats of deplatforming for sharing the very real image.

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Taking to social media platform X, the user 'End Wokeness' said, "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the Trump fist image 'one of the most badass things I've ever seen' 10 days ago. Facebook is now censoring that image."

The post had over 884k views within 15 hours.

Also on X, Dani Lever, a spokesperson for Meta, Facebook's parent company, admitted the "mistake" on Monday. 

"Yes, this was an error," Lever stated on X, responding to conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. 

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"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," she explained.

"This has been fixed and we apologise for the mistake," she further said.

The clarification has been met with scepticism from some X users, with remarks suggesting that such errors disproportionately affect conservative viewpoints. 

One user noted, "Funny that the 'errors' only ever go in one direction," while others expressed disbelief and frustration over Meta's handling of the situation.

Meta Chatbot AI calls Trump assassination "fictional"

Facebook has also come under fire for incorrectly referring to the assassination attempt as "fictional" in some responses. 

Users reported on social media that when asked about Donald Trump's July 13 assassination attempt, the Meta AI chatbot called it a "fictional event". In contrast, it readily answered questions about Trump's political rival Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign, calling that a "real and ongoing event".

A Meta spokesperson, as per the New York Post, has acknowledged the problem and stated that efforts are underway to correct inaccuracies in the chatbot's responses.

Google and election interference

Google has also faced criticism, particularly regarding its search engine's autocomplete function that, when searched for "President Donald" skipped "Trump" in results. Instead, it came up with "President Donald Duck" and "President Donald Reagan".

(With inputs from agencies)