Facebook Mistakenly Deletes Page for the Town of Bitche, France (slate.com) 76
"Ville de Bitche is a town situated in northwestern France with a rich military history, pastoral landscape, and an unfortunate sounding name," reports Slate. (Adding that the "e" is silent....)
"Recently tiny Bitche made international headlines after Facebook mistook the city's name for a swear word and deleted the town's Facebook page." The city's communication manager, Valêrie Degouy, contacted Facebook on March 19 to explain the situation and ask the company to reverse its decision — for the second time. (The page was previously deleted in 2016.) As she awaited Facebook's response — which apologized and reinstated the page Tuesday — Degouy set up a new page for her town, under the name of Marie 57230, her city's postal code. Although Facebook's mistake seems innocuous enough, for the towns located around Bitche, local Facebook pages serve as the main form of communication. Shutting the page down effectively creates a local news blackout. When Rohrbach-les Bitche — a nearby town in the region — heard about the deletion, it quickly rid "ls-Bitche" from its Facebook page name to avoid a similar fate...
The residents of Bitche are far from alone in their reliance on Facebook for local news. In the United States alone, more than 2,000 local newspapers have closed over the past two decades, according to an estimate from Joshua Scacco, associate professor of political communication at the University of South Florida. In these news deserts, Facebook has risen as an alternative information source, allowing anyone with an account to share updates and post events...
But Facebook is not only filling the local news void — it is tied to local papers' disappearance. "Social and digital media are a contributing factor in thinking about the declines of the presence of local newsrooms, as well as what that coverage looks like for the local newsrooms that remain," Scacco says. Facebook is moving advertising dollars away from local newspapers, and even driving the content local newspapers create. Local news coverage often panders to Facebook's algorithms when creating content and headlines, notes Ashley Muddiman, a communications professor at the University of Kansas.
"Recently tiny Bitche made international headlines after Facebook mistook the city's name for a swear word and deleted the town's Facebook page." The city's communication manager, Valêrie Degouy, contacted Facebook on March 19 to explain the situation and ask the company to reverse its decision — for the second time. (The page was previously deleted in 2016.) As she awaited Facebook's response — which apologized and reinstated the page Tuesday — Degouy set up a new page for her town, under the name of Marie 57230, her city's postal code. Although Facebook's mistake seems innocuous enough, for the towns located around Bitche, local Facebook pages serve as the main form of communication. Shutting the page down effectively creates a local news blackout. When Rohrbach-les Bitche — a nearby town in the region — heard about the deletion, it quickly rid "ls-Bitche" from its Facebook page name to avoid a similar fate...
The residents of Bitche are far from alone in their reliance on Facebook for local news. In the United States alone, more than 2,000 local newspapers have closed over the past two decades, according to an estimate from Joshua Scacco, associate professor of political communication at the University of South Florida. In these news deserts, Facebook has risen as an alternative information source, allowing anyone with an account to share updates and post events...
But Facebook is not only filling the local news void — it is tied to local papers' disappearance. "Social and digital media are a contributing factor in thinking about the declines of the presence of local newsrooms, as well as what that coverage looks like for the local newsrooms that remain," Scacco says. Facebook is moving advertising dollars away from local newspapers, and even driving the content local newspapers create. Local news coverage often panders to Facebook's algorithms when creating content and headlines, notes Ashley Muddiman, a communications professor at the University of Kansas.
Just another example of The Scunthrope Problem. (Score:5, Informative)
Facebook and other "social media" censors have done this so often that there is a term for it: The Scunthorpe problem [wikipedia.org].
(As EditorDavid already pointed out when he assigned this article to the Scunthorpe-problems dept.)
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Not learning from mistakes? (Score:5, Insightful)
One would think that there would be some kind of internal protection or flag that would have been set after the 2016 deletion to keep Facebook from doing such a bone-headed thing a second time.
But Facebook apparently doesn't think.
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Of course not. Some clueless AI algorithm made the decision and nobody is watching the store because they're too busy counting their ill-gotten booty.
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But Facebook apparently doesn't think.
Oh it thinks, but it apparently does not remember, and so is condemned to repeat its mistakes forever.
A more accurate story would be: (Score:3)
the ultimate source of fake news.
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Isn't Facebook's motto something like "Code fast and break things"?
If Facebook implemented the protection, they probably broke it and it got deleted in the meantime.
Like this here (Score:3)
Bitche, please
no such vulgar word (Score:2)
The censors can't spell? There is no word "Bitche" in the dictionary other than the place. This level of ignorance reminds me of certain dumb ignorant DC area politicians getting triggered by the word "niggardly."
Re:no such vulgar word (Score:5, Informative)
Laughably American - the facebook moderators are apparently unaware that languages other than English are spoken on this planet. This is quite apart than not thinking/bothering to check.
This is just another instance of the Scunthorpe problem [wikipedia.org]
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I was here to tell that, I wish I had some internet points to give you !
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You seem to be an ignorant person who imagines that there is some language in which "Bitche" means "Bitch". But there are none.
The name "Bitche" comes from place's old latin name Bytis Castrum which later became Bitsch.
Re: no such vulgar word (Score:2)
It's no accident your post (and this post) are written in the language most commonly used in America. Silly or not, English is still the lingua franca of the Internet. And as long as it is, this sort of thing will happen.
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There is no vulgar word "Bitche" in any language though, including English. The name comes from old latin name of fort there, Bytis Castrum, which later became "Bitsch".
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English is fine, and "bitch" is a fine Anglo-Saxon word which means a "female dog".
What's not fine is when close-minded, bigoted and puritanical Americans are forcing their idiotic "norms" and "sensibilities" upon the rest of the world.
Facebook also censors pictures of women breastfeeding, Michelangelo's statue of David, naked toddlers playing in the sand, etc., all while creating a safe space for utter scum like antivaxers, conspiracy theorists, racists, neo-nazis and even active pogrom organizing in count
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Laughably ignorant poseur who cannot tell me one human language on this planet in which "Bitche" is anything other than a place.
"Bitch" in French is "chienne", by the way.
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Do they use "chienne" in the same context? In high school, a French classmate told me that they used "vache" (cow) or "salope" (don't know the direct translation) to insult a person.
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Oh there are other words too, if you want more of a whore connotation "pute", "putain" and "pouffiasse" do nicely. Well, not nice at all lol.
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Don't evan ask what the creators of Sonic's name means in Italian!
Yet another reason to kill Facebook (Score:5, Insightful)
But Facebook is not only filling the local news void — it is tied to local papers' disappearance. "Social and digital media are a contributing factor in thinking about the declines of the presence of local newsrooms, as well as what that coverage looks like for the local newsrooms that remain," Scacco says. Facebook is moving advertising dollars away from local newspapers, and even driving the content local newspapers create. Local news coverage often panders to Facebook's algorithms when creating content and headlines, notes Ashley Muddiman, a communications professor at the University of Kansas.
Yet another reason to kill local news. (Score:3)
Facebook is moving advertising dollars away from local newspapers...
OK, so why aren't the people who need local news not paying for it? Reason, Facebook is succeeding is because it's FREE!!. Let me repeat FREE. If there's anything "chilling" it's that people don't want to pay to be informed. Facebook is free. Blogs are free. The guy walking down the street wearing a pasteboard is free.
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The local newspaper here is free too, just shows up in a box beside the mailboxes and in town gets delivered to the house. Like Facebook, they do charge for ads but Facebook is much bigger and more evil so will undercut the local newspapers prices for ads until the local paper finally folds.
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I think psychologically something is different. People may not even be as interested in local news as they once were. Even if you offered both for free, there is only so much attention to give. People's daily lives include global spanning communication now. That's probably not going away.
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'FREE' DOES NOT EQUATE TO 'GOOD', DAMNIT!
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So Canadians, Mexicans, Cubans, Bresillians and nay others people living in the Americas can vote to US election ?
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That's what they tell me.
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So where previously, a news outlet might be inclined to spice up the headlines a bit, doing so is now a prerequisite to be distributed by the algorithm. Whereas the peddling of getmad "engaging content" used to be an occasional flaw, now it's become the entire game.
People who don't get it pin the issue on "MSM", substituting it with Facebook-media which has all the same problems multiplied by 10.
If I lived in Bitche, I'd take this as a wake-up call to set up a bulletin board with phpBB, or even a Telegram g
Facebook, that (Score:1)
son of a...
100 Infantry Division came from South Carolina... (Score:5, Informative)
“Together, we can honour together the memory of compatriots and our American friends who under the flag of the 100 Infantry Division came from South Carolina to liberate our town: liberators who called themselves, with pride, the ‘sons of Bitche’.”
Don't they know websites ? (Score:4, Informative)
You would think that a commune of more than 5000 inhabitants would have the means to build a website. And they have: http://www.ville-bitche.fr/sit... [ville-bitche.fr]
No need for facebook.
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It's not a question of whether the town has the wherewithal to build a website - it's, unfortunately, a question of where a significant percentage of the population goes to find "information" (quotes intentional).
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Problem is, lots of people they want to attract use Facebook, so much so it's likely their home page.
Humanity has come to the point where Facebook is the center of a lot of people's universe - it's where they get their news from, it's where they make contacts, where they decide where to go, etc. Google probably knows this since "facebook" is pro
But Mianus is still safe? (Score:3)
Jackass sequel ftw.
Facebook is a Bitche (Score:2)
Forget Bitches (Score:2)
What about, Fucking, Austria [google.com]? Is it still safe???
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It is - they changed the name to "Fugging". I suppose it was done to comply with Facebook policing?
Re:Forget Bitches (Score:4, Insightful)
to comply with Facebook policing
To keep people from stealing the road signs.
'e' is silent... (Score:1)
Why is "bitch" considered a swore word, again? (Score:2)
https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
Soon, we will be left with "a" and "the" only?
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Soon, we will be left with "a" and "the" only?
"The"? Seriously? The most exclusionary, singular word in the English language. We should only use inclusive words, like "a". As a matter of fact, we don't need any other words than "a". All of the other words lead to exclusion and conflict, which only divides us. Check your privilege, bro.
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Bangkok is still on Bookface. Or is it? (Score:2)
Depending on Bookface to learn from their mistakes is pretty much guaranteed to end up poorly.
Southpark (Score:2)
ohhh so _that's_ where Kyle's mom comes from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
close one (Score:2)
luckily there's no town / internet access near the Bridge over the River Kwai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
La vie a Bitche (Score:2)
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/.ed !
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Ms. Degouy's first words (Score:2)
Upon discovering the deletion of her town's Facebook page, Ms. Degouy was heard to exclaim "Son of a Bitche!"
"A swear word", eh? Not a female dog? (Score:1)
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Bitche is not a swear nor vulgar word in any language though, someone was really ignorant to imagine it had anything to do with "bitch". "Cunte" is used though for "cunt" sometimes.
Not a problem for me (Score:2)
I have already deleted my Twitface accounts as a response to the censorship crisis.
We seem to be missing something here (Score:2)
That Facebook has so much power, influence and control.
Break the fucker up. Same with Google, or any other company too big for it's britches.
We used to fear M$ for being so big. But the aformentioned companies are far more dangerous than M$ ever was as these companies have so much influence on the popular political narritave and control over who gets to write it.
Just because... (Score:1)
That's just because they are French. The name has nothing to do with it. /j
Facebook deleted the Milwaukee page a few yrs ago (Score:2)
Editors should proof-read (Score:2)
Marie? Really? Sure it's not Mairie (i.e. town hall)?
It wasn't mistake (Score:2)