If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Facebook’s escalating efforts to combat copyright infringement are now veering into territory that threatens open discourse and journalism. Although the company claims to be shielding rights holders, its heavy dependence on automated enforcement systems is sweeping up legitimate reporting in the process, especially when the topic involves digital piracy. In recent years, Facebook has equipped itself with an arsenal of tools to detect and react to unauthorized content. Chief among them is Rights Manager, a platform that identifies potentially infringing material and gives copyright holders the option to remove or monetize it. This setup, along with third-party services and internal technology, is designed to reduce manual takedown requests and streamline enforcement. However, streamlining has come at a steep price. These tools are increasingly acting on keywords without considering context. The word “MagisTV” has become one such trigger, and it now appears that even basic news coverage mentioning the term is automatically flagged and removed. Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today discovered this firsthand when Facebook took down a post linking to one of his articles. According to TorrentFreak, the article discussed legal issues and malware claims surrounding the MagisTV app, but did not share or promote infringing material. It also cited a report by TorrentFreak covering the same topic. To verify the issue, both articles were posted again through a separate Facebook account. Both were deleted within minutes. Facebook’s explanation was brief and opaque: “We removed your content… it may contain something that’s not allowed for copyright reasons.” The platform offered no detailed justification, only a general reference to its intellectual property policies. In a further test, a press release from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) was posted to see if enforcement was consistent. ACE is a global anti-piracy group backed by the Motion Picture Association, and its content actively targets services like MagisTV. Even this content was removed, again for alleged copyright violations. The only unifying factor in these removals was the mention of MagisTV. Facebook’s automated filters do not distinguish between infringing content and discussion or news reporting about infringement. The result is that journalists and researchers documenting the piracy landscape are being blocked just for reporting the facts. Efforts to appeal these decisions have proven futile. After five days of silence following an appeal of the first takedown, another article about law enforcement actions involving MagisTV was posted as a follow-up test. It was quickly removed, and the account used was suspended with a warning of permanent deactivation. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Facebook’s Copyright Filters Are Silencing Journalism Through Overzealous Automated Takedowns appeared first on Reclaim The Net.