A lot of people like to use Snopes as a source for determining if something is true or false. But it seems that sometimes, Snopes gets it wrong.
Such was the case when the site published an article referencing an incident where Facebook told the administrators of “Locked and Loaded” that a Marine Corps emblem with a “remembrance” ribbon violated their community standards.
As I reported in late July, the page was unpublished at the same time. You can read that report here.
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Along comes Snopes, making this wild claim: “A Facebook page was suspended because its U.S. Marine Corps emblem was deemed to violate the network’s community standards?”
Snopes added this:
Snopes then said:
Origins: On 8 July 2015, a contributor to the web site Examiner (to which anyone can submit content on a controversial, easily abused compensation-for-clicks basis) published an article claimed that Facebook had suspended the page “Locked and Loaded” (the companion social media arm for a separate blog of the same name) on the sole basis that it displayed an image of a U.S. Marine Corps emblem which was deemed to be in violation of Facebook’s community standards:
There’s only one problem. At no time did we ever say the page was unpublished because of the logo. The two events happened during the same time frame, but no causal link was ever established. Snopes also got the date wrong. The article was published on 28 July 2015, not 8 July.
Here’s what we actually wrote:
Late Monday, Facebook unpublished the popular pro-military “Locked and Loaded” page, while telling administrators that a picture of the United States Marine Corps emblem with a ribbon marked “In Remembrance” violated their community standards. Jason Light, an administrator from Atlanta, Georgia, told Examiner in an exclusive interview the page was covering the funeral and burial of Marine Lance Corporal Skip Wells, who was killed in Chattanooga.
As anyone with a basic understanding of English can see, no link between the two events were made. But that’s not what Snopes wants you to believe. The page was yanked, but is back up now — that happens fairly often at Facebook. The social media giant has since said the Marine Corps logo doesn’t violate their standards, meaning this was the act of a rogue moderator. It happens — far too often, as I’ve reported time and again.
The alleged “fact-checker” also attacked Examiner, but I personally know several people who have applied but were not accepted. I also know people who have been dropped from Examiner, some more than once.
Here’s the picture showing what Facebook told the administrators:
But you’re not supposed to believe your lying eyes… It’s clear this article was written by someone with an agenda and an axe to grind who clearly played fast and loose with the facts.
We contacted Snopes, demanding the defamatory post be yanked. We’ll see what happens.
