Is Facebook Targeting Links From TheBlaze as Spam?

It has come to the attention of TheBlaze that some readers or sharers of our stories on Facebook have been experiencing problems.

In several cases, trying to access the link to TheBlaze's story about Michelle Obama allegedly visiting the Saudi National in the hospital after the Boston bombings gave Facebook users warnings that the site could be spam.

In other cases, posting links -- any links -- from TheBlaze on Facebook resulted in a pop-up requiring a CAPTCHA code be filled out.

After filling out the code, the link would post just fine. Links from other media outlets though did not require a CAPTCHA code though.

Searching public posts on Facebook about TheBlaze revealed many were talking about potential problems and even calling it censorship:

TheBlaze contacted Facebook for comment on what might be causing this issue and learned from a Facebook Policy Communications spokesperson that posts from TheBlaze "were triggering a false positive on our spam systems," which were recently re-calibrated.

The spokesperson said links from TheBlaze on Facebook should be working fine now.

Were Facebook users being unfair for jumping to censorship conclusions? TheBlaze has reported cases in the past where conservative bloggers have claimed Facebook unfairly shut down their accounts or penalized them for posts. Several pages for gun stores were recently shut down for violating Facebook's policies as well. Conservatives have even launched their own social network as an alternative to Facebook.

But according to Facebook, in the case of TheBlaze's links they have an explanation.

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Related:

• Conservatives Launch New Social Network to Escape Facebook Censorship
• Facebook Apologizes for Threatening to Shut Down Conservative Fan Page Over Post Critical of Obama Admin.
• Ever Wonder Why Something Gets Banned on Facebook?
• Conservative Radio Host Says Facebook Refused Him Ad Space for His New Book Because of the Word ‘Hate’