Meta, the parent company of Facebook, admitted it censored the iconic photo of a bleeding Donald Trump pumping his fist after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. “This was an error. 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. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake,” Meta spokeswoman Dani Lever said. This was an error. 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. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake. https://t.co/y613GuuJpV — Dani Lever (@Dani_Lever) July 29, 2024 “Yes, this was an error. 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. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake,” Lever responded to a post from Charlie Kirk. Yes, this was an error. 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. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake. — Dani Lever (@Dani_Lever) July 29, 2024 From the New York Post: The Meta spokesperson’s clarification did not sit well with X users, including one who remarked: “Funny that the ‘errors’ only ever go in one direction. Just coincidence, I guess.” Another X user wrote: “No one believes you.” “Nope, not buying it anymore,” remarked another X user. Meta has come under fire from Trump supporters after its AI chatbot, Meta AI, referred to the attempted assassination as “fictional” when prompted to provide details about the tragic event. X users sympathetic to Trump posted screenshots of Meta AI answers that were given in response to prompts about the attempted assassination. In one instance, the bot got the date of the event wrong. In another, it answered the question correctly, but gave a terse reply that, when juxtaposed with a prompt about Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, made it seem as if the tech giant was biased in favor of Democrats. #BREAKING: Facebook has officially admitted that it wrongly censored the historic, iconic photo of former President Trump pumping his fist with his ear bleeding after the tragic event that occurred during his rally in Pennsylvania, saying this was an error pic.twitter.com/EdlATA0rp4 — R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) July 29, 2024 “This was clearly not an error and they knew what they were doing,” one X user commented. Meta just admitted that it wrongly censored the historic, iconic photo of former President Trump pumping his fist with his ear bleeding after the tragic event that occurred during his rally in Pennsylvania, saying this was an error. This was clearly not an error and they knew… pic.twitter.com/ZuHQiQ7njD — Sean M (@SeanMcCrossenX) July 29, 2024 Boston Herald reports: The error comes as Meta is coming under intense scrutiny for a pivot to artificial intelligence as it attempts to police what is shared online. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, writes in a blog post that his company is “taking the next steps towards open source AI becoming the industry standard.” This hits as Elon Musk shared a video using an AI voice-cloning tool to mimic the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris saying things not attributed to her, the Associated Press writes. It’s all a tangled web that shows social media is not the most reliable venue for legitimate news, said social media expert David Gerzof Richard, a professor at Emerson College and founder of Big Fish PR.