Found out my meme about a local politician got wiped from 3 different platforms in 2 hours

Last month I made a simple meme poking fun at a city councilman in Phoenix for saying something dumb about water shortages. I posted it on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit around 8 PM. By 10 PM it was removed from all three for 'misinformation' even though it was just a screenshot of his own quote with a laugh emoji. I didn't even use a fake caption or edit anything. It got me thinking about how fast platforms can kill a joke that's just quoting public officials. Has anyone else had a meme vanish just because it made a politician look bad?

3 comments

3 Comments

cole_robinson21d ago

Ask them if the removal notice specifically said the quote itself was "misinformation" or if they flagged it for something else like "harassment" or "targeted content." Because I've had a similar thing happen with a state senator here in Arizona where I just reposted his press release with no comment, and Facebook deleted it for "misleading claims" even though it was literally his own words from his own page. I want to know if these platforms are straight up saying a politician's public quote is misinformation, or if they're hiding behind some other rule to pull it down.

bettyk5321d ago

Did the platforms actually explain how a direct quote qualified as misinformation?

evan_stone21d ago

Did they actually give a specific reason or just a generic "misinformation" tag? I've had the same thing happen with a local council member's statement, and they never really clarified how quoting someone word for word broke their rules. @cole_robinson makes a good point about checking the actual violation language, because they often hide behind other categories.