Facebook apologizes after mistaking Trump’s social media director for bot

Facebook has issued an apology to White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino after temporarily blocking his ability to post for several hours on Monday because he ran afoul of its bot detectors.

In an official statement, the social media giant claimed that its algorithm had mistaken Scavino for a robot account after he publicly complained that he was unfairly targeted.

US President Donald Trump and White House director of Social Media Dan Scavino. © Reuters/Yuri Gripas

“In order to stop automated bots, we cap the amount of identical, repetitive activity coming from one account in a short period of time, such as @mentioning people,” the tech giant said, adding that these caps can produce unintended collateral damage.

“We've been in touch with him and have apologized for the inconvenience.”

Scavino's blocking also caught the attention of US President Donald Trump who said he would look into accusations of anti-conservative bias on social media platforms.

“There's discrimination, there's big discrimination,” Trump said during a joint press conference with visiting Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. “Something's happening with those groups of folks that are running Facebook, and Google, and Twitter, and I do think we have to get to the bottom of it.”

Facebook has strenuously denied accusations of liberal bias that have been repeatedly directed at the social media behemoth. The accusations have come from within the company too. Last year, an employee called the company a liberal “monoculture that’s intolerant of different views.”

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