Technology

Why Did Facebook Deem a Tech Blogger‘s Comment ’Irrelevant’ and Block It?

Learn How Facebooks Spam Filters Work Constantly to Prevent Malware From Being Posted

(Image: Shutterstock)

Over the weekend, a tech junkie tried to make a comment on Facebook and was prevented from doing so because his post was deemed “irrelevant” or “spam.” While the issue has begun to be cleared up, it has revealed some interesting things about how Facebook cleans up comments for you.

First, here’s some background. Robert Scoble, who some describe as a “tech evangelist” and “tech startup enthusiast,” tried to post a comment on Friday on one of Max Woolf’s Facebook posts but was prevented from doing so instantly. Here’s what Scoble wrote on his Google+ page about the incident:

Looks like Facebook is doing content analysis in real time before it will let you post and is looking to keep the service “happy.” I sure wonder now what kind of algorithms Facebook is running on content.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? I haven’t, and I’ve posted tons of comments to Facebook.

My comment?

“I‘m so glad I didn’t start a media business. It’s actually really tough to get new and interesting stories and to avoid falling into drama. People forget that Techcrunch was built step-by-step as a new publishing form was taking shape. PandoDaily doesn’t have that advantage and, is, indeed, facing competition from social networks that is quite good indeed.

I no longer visit blogs. I watch Twitter, Google+, and Facebook, along with Hacker News, Techmeme, Quora. These are the new news sources.

Plus, Pando Daily actually doesn’t have enough capital to compete head on with, say, D: All Things Digital or The Verge, both of which are expanding quickly and have ecosystems behind them.”

Scoble was met with this error message (see image below).

Learn How Facebooks Spam Filters Work Constantly to Prevent Malware From Being Posted

Tech blogs began picking up on the incident, considering it a form of censorship. TechCrunch called it a “very strange enactment of any kind of Facebook policy.”

At the same time, Emil Protalinski from ZDNet tried to post a replica of Scoble’s comment and it ended up going through. Protalinski was provided this statement by Facebook:

“To protect the millions of people who connect and share on Facebook every day, we have automated systems that work in the background to maintain a trusted environment and protect our users from bad actors who often use links to spread spam and malware,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “These systems are so effective that most people who use Facebook will never encounter spam. They’re not perfect, though, and in rare instances they make mistakes. This comment was mistakenly blocked as spammy, and we have already started to make adjustments to our classifier. We look forward to learning from rare cases such as these to make sure we don’t repeat the same mistake in the future.”

Considering Scoble as a “pretty popular guy on the web,” TechCrunch surmised this was some sort of glitch in Facebook’s algorithmic system.

They were right. Scoble later updated his Google+ post to state he had been contacted by Facebook over the “comment censorship issue” and was told his comment was blogged as a “false positive:”

Turns out that my comment was blocked by Facebook‘s spam classification filters and that it wasn’t blocked for what the comment said, but rather because of something unique to that message. They are looking more into it and will let me know more later, after they figure out what triggered it. Their thesis is that my comment triggered it for a few reasons:

1. I’m subscribed to @max.woolf https://www.facebook.com/max.woolf and am not a friend of his in the system. That means that the spam classification system treats comments more strictly than if we were friends.

2. My comment included three @ links. That probably is what triggered the spam classification system.

3. There might have been other things about the comment that triggered the spam system.

The PR official I talked with told me that the spam classification system has tons of algorithms that try to keep you from posting low-value comments, particularly to public accounts (er, people who have turned on subscriptions here on Facebook).

Scoble writes that he appreciates Facebook monitoring the quality of posts, citing how he recently changed his privacy to only allow “friends of friends” to post comments due to poor quality before.

[H/T PC World]

Comments (42)

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  • Paul
    Posted on May 8, 2012 at 6:13pm

    Try downloading your data in your “Account.”

    Good luck, I had none…

    Report Post » Paul  
  • CommonSenseTalk
    Posted on May 8, 2012 at 6:08pm

    Thats funny, I get removed all the time from TheBlaze. They should understand how it works.

    Hate-Divide-Rule Obama 2012

    Report Post »  
  • ROB RAGE
    Posted on May 8, 2012 at 1:46pm

    F.Y.I. I got booted..did a system restore and got back in..!

    Report Post » ROB RAGE  
  • ROB RAGE
    Posted on May 8, 2012 at 1:41pm

    Facebook is more like Facist-book…Who are they to say what is irrelevant..or inappropriate…That’s censorship…and a violation of Free speech…They’re irrelevant and inappropriate for posting that moronic demand..!

    Report Post » ROB RAGE  
  • tomacz
    Posted on May 8, 2012 at 10:26am

    you want a free press???
    you have to go out n buy one

    Report Post »  
  • kevinj319
    Posted on May 8, 2012 at 10:17am

    You guys do realize that Facebook is not your own personal website, right? The text and images you post on Facebook are allowed to remain there courtesy of Facebook.

    Make your own website and post whatever you like on it. That’s what people used to do before this social media business. If someone takes your OWN website down, then get back to me and we’ll talk censorship.

    Report Post »  
  • ObserverOnTheHill
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 8:49pm

    can’t mess w/ the upcoming IPO price by making people wonder about “ real value”

    Report Post »  
  • 22hornet
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 7:34pm

    I dumped facebook last week because they were blocking youtube likes and my comments. Like these links. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ-4gnNz0vc#! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Az0okaHig&feature=related

    Report Post » 22hornet  
  • NOT A CRAZY
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 5:31pm

    I dropped FB like a hot potato after they instantly removed some of my comments. I deleted my account. I would not start a new FB account if that BO-loving Billionaire, Zuckerman, paid me. ****** *** ******* ***! Did that get censored? Just sayin’.

    Report Post » NOT A CRAZY  
  • thegreatcarnac
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 3:55pm

    Censorship seems to be at the whim on one little clown.

    Report Post »  
    • lukerw
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 4:09pm

      Someone probably said that… in Nazi Germany!

      Report Post » lukerw  
  • RestoreCapitalism
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 2:46pm

    It may have been the ‘Hacker news’ mention that triggered it. I think the thing we should take from this is that free speech is no longer a given, even on the internet. Facebook has long allowed spammers to ‘tag’ people in a photo that was actually spam, inferring that it was somehow relevant to that person, when in fact it was just stuff they were trying to sell. It seems they may have a more politically correct agenda in trying to ‘protect’ their users.

    Report Post » RestoreCapitalism  
    • Marci
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 4:34pm

      Anyone who hires Robert Fibbs to be on their staff no longer qualifies as a free market company OR free. We have seen time and again that Facebook changes its layouts solely to satisfy their advertisers with no consideration to the user. Granted, it is a free service to the user, but if the user is annoyed by the layout, are they going to click on any ads? I hide ads and ignore others, but never click on them for this reason.

      Report Post » Marci  
    • Leader1776
      Posted on May 8, 2012 at 9:23am

      The real test of censorship is not what you are allowed to say on someone elses site, but what happens when you say want you want on your own site. You still believe the owners of their own sites have rights too, correct? I’m sure you believe a restaurant owner should be allowed to allow smoking in their restaurant unimpeded by the government, right? Now apply that to FB. It is still, as you state, owned by The Zuk-miester. His call. Your freedom is to either use, not use, or start your own site. How ’bout NeckBook ……….. has a nice ring (around the collar ;-)

      Report Post » Leader1776  
  • Eric_The_Red_State
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 2:30pm

    I am relatively active on Facebook and I just got that very same message last week for the first time.
    I thought it really odd.
    Some weird stuff is going on here.

    ALSO – I kept getting a bad VIRUS each time I visited “The Blaze” and had to stay off for a couple of weeks. It never failed – I would clean up the computer – remove the virus – and then log back in to “The Blaze” and then BOOM – I would get the virus again.

    Only recently was I brave enough to venture back to see if it was still happening and it seems OK now.

    My suspicion – We are ALL being watched. And watched closely.

    Report Post » Eric_The_Red_State  
    • Burby
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 3:58pm

      Unreal & here I thought it was just me with the viruses from here & removal of a facebook comment.
      I did not get the message as you displayed here. Mine was about 3 or 4 weeks back. I had posted an article on the Zimmerman story and someone jumping to conclusions that Z is a wannabe killer of kids, (their comment was allowed), I responded, I will hold my opinion until after court has ruled other than, I do not believe Z killed Trayvon just because, any cwp holder knows they will be looked at equally or more so than a criminal with a gun in the event they have to shoot another. I am not familiar with Fla cwp law, but in SC we have to take an actual 8 hr class in order to receive our cwp & even after doing so wait 90 days to get one, if approved. I spent 5 hrs learnign the laws & liability of holding a cwp.
      From here I moved on to other areas of my page. I then thought of something I wanted to add, went back & as I did I noticed a yellow caution like sign after my name before my comment, then both just disappeared, my comment & the sign. I was like WTH?? I never got a reason or email notification, anything, it just was gone.

      Report Post » Burby  
    • aquablue
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 11:19pm

      i had a problem trying to load blaze too. there was a virus block message. strange indeed.

      Report Post » aquablue  
  • Texas Chris
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 2:24pm

    FaceBook says:
    “Here are some people you may know!”

    FaceBook says:
    “You have invited people to be friends that you do not know. Your friend invite priviledges have been revoked for 7 days.”

    Gee, FaceBook, thanks for being consistent…

    Report Post »  
  • objectivetruth
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 2:20pm

    Don’t like facebook/Always seemed childish to me.Never used the site and don’t now.This isn‘t the first time I’ve heard of someone getting banned or had a rejected post there though.

    Report Post »  
  • TheJabroni
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 2:12pm

    For a while, my mother was posting the US Constitution to her Facebook wall over a series of days, one article/section at a time. When she pasted in the text and tried to post, most of the time, they would just disappear with no apparent error or reason being displayed. At first, I thought she was just doing something wrong until I watched it happen.

    My mom leaned toward the conspiratorial thought that Facebook was somehow censoring her right-leaning posts, specifically those having to do with the constitution. Me, being a software engineer, leaned toward the more simple explanation that their software is just buggy.

    Now, after seeing this, I’m really not sure. The posts were on her wall, not to someone else’s or to a public page. And they were very benign. Just the text of the Constitution. I’m not suggesting that they were intentionally trying to censor that sort of content. But maybe they’re trying to make value judgments like with the guy in the story and are just doing a bad job of it. The only scary thing there is that they‘re even attempting to judge the value of someone’s words in an automated way. Though, I guess I can understand that spam is a huge issue and maybe the whole thing is born out of noble intentions.

    Report Post »  
  • infortheride
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 2:02pm

    Hurry Hurry Hurry step right up and give your first amendment the finger, join FACEBOOK, after all you don’t need or have rights anymore

    Report Post »  
  • THX-1138
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 1:38pm

    FaceBook? What the heck is FaceBook?
    (Got it because my family was on it. I haven’t logged in in about two years. Can’t say I miss it *at all*.)

    Report Post » THX-1138  
  • Belwraith
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 1:29pm

    I’ve had posts removed from FB…with no explaination. I had responded to a post about Obama and referenced a video in which he stated something that was a compromise to his campaign…I wish I could remember the full details now…anyway, tried to repost it 3 times and it just kept disappearing into cyberspace with no explainations. My thoughts were, “interesting….” I ended up calling the person I responded to and gave them the URL so they could look it up themselves. Figured at that time that FB is on the protecting Obama page.

    Report Post »  
  • tharpdevenport
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 1:13pm

    I find it a little ironic a Blaze article on censorship, considering the ridiculous censorship that occurs in the Balze comments section. I’ve have it happen twice that I remember.

    I tried quoting Harry Reid, when he said Obama was a “light skinned” black with no “n— dialect”. Of course, the rest of the word is “egro”, but they censored that.

    Or the common liberal term, lib—-. The rest of it being “tard”. But it was asterixed out.

    Seems The Blaze is trying to make comments “Happy”.

    Report Post » tharpdevenport  
    • LogCabinRepublican
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 1:38pm

      The Blaze is not censoring – they just don’t want profanity on this site which could lead to hate speech.

      Report Post »  
    • cantstandlibs
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 1:51pm

      responding the the defender of the blaze after the “ironic for the blaze…” post:

      My posts are either being filtered, or the Blaze has about the lousiest of web sites in support of viewers posting.

      Report Post »  
    • tharpdevenport
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 2:00pm

      I hate to break it to you, but neither of those are “profanity”. And they are not also hate speech, unless used as such.

      And if you’re worried about that, try scrolling through the comments section of passed Allen West articles and watch left-wingers tear him to disgsting pieces, and those comments remain.

      Report Post » tharpdevenport  
    • objectivetruth
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 2:17pm

      I’ve had mine censored.It wasn’t for profanity or hate speech.In fact I wasn’t ever told why.My comments just dissapeared into cyberspace.I however don’t know if its the blaze or from something else.

      Report Post »  
  • hauschild
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:37pm

    The new and improved Brown Shirt Brigade … Coming to a free speech zone near you!

    Amazing how quickly history repeats itself, isn’t it??? One would naturally assume it to take hundreds of years, not around 60.

    Report Post »  
  • justangry
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:25pm

    Ah the censorship… Sopa/Pipa/Cispa style screening by companies. Got to love it… Right Blaze?

    Report Post » justangry  
    • 4XGrace
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:44pm

      I’ve had a few post scrubbed from the Blaze and they were tame … or at least I thought they were … ;-)
      Scrubadubabud can’t offend the thin skinned bigots out there especially the Muslim crowd … oh, no, no.

      A la who?

      Report Post » 4XGrace  
  • s0ck_monkey
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:19pm

    That’s funny. Something worth reading gets censored as “irrelevant” and they let the REAL relevant posts stay! Posts about how awesome their shower was, how bored they are at work, how “smart” their kids are because they figured out how to finger paint…without eating any of it…and they’re in the first grade, arguing back and forth with the “friends” because someone that knows someone that knows someone that knows someone who heard that so-and-so slept with baby momma daddy in the 9th grade…ad nauseum

    Three cheers for narcissism!

    Report Post »  
    • justangry
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:26pm

      Try to have a conversation about the different theories of constitutionalism here at the Blaze…

      Report Post » justangry  
    • EqualJustice
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:43pm

      Plenty of COMPLAINTS today about the Blaze and the posts? Me thinks the left doesn’t LIKE US? hahaha Should have left Glenn alone… ;)

      Report Post » EqualJustice  
  • term limits for congress
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 11:47am

    Related issue: I’ve received a lot of emails over the past few weeks with the words “Potential Spam” added to the subject line. That algorithmic system is spreading.

    Report Post »  
  • CatB
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 11:43am

    Facebook IPO coming up . …they don’t want anything to effect the stock price .. they are going around promoting it to investors. Being super careful about what is posted

    Report Post »  
  • HorseCrazy
    Posted on May 7, 2012 at 11:40am

    who cares. anyone see that story on drudge that made me sick about the perverts on facebook? I do believe that matters a heck of a lot more than this lady’s complaint. hey facebook clean up the child porn problem, if you do not I hope you are sued to your ruin.

    Report Post »  
    • Countrygirl1362
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:01pm

      Yes I saw the article and for others that havn’t and want to read the article here is the link.

      http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/kids-raped-sodomized-on-facebook-pages/

      Report Post »  
    • JediKnight
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:38pm

      Did you read the article or just go off at the headline? Most of the time, the images come from people outside the country. Not a whole lot FB can do about that except what they’re doing, which is deleting it once they’re made aware of it. The article even says it takes about 3 days for a page to be deleted. Seeing as how they can only chase the problem, the pedophiles can create the pages much faster than FB can be notified of them.

      Report Post »  
    • FeliciaJewel
      Posted on May 8, 2012 at 10:54am

      I did read that story, sick to my stomach.

      Report Post » FeliciaJewel  
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