Facebook Hampers Do-It-Yourself Mask Efforts During Pandemic

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=53920"><span class="small">Mike Isaac, The New York Times</span></a>

Monday, 06 April 2020 13:06

Isaac writes: "As health workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic plead for personal protective equipment, volunteer efforts to create hand-sewn masks and deliver them to medical professionals have quickly sprung up across the internet."

Kim Collins, co-founder of MommaArts Pregnancy Care Center, sewing masks in her home in South Orange, N.J. She is part of a 365-member Facebook group of sewing volunteers in South Orange and nearby Maplewood. (photo: Elsa/Getty Images)

Facebook Hampers Do-It-Yourself Mask Efforts During Pandemic

By Mike Isaac, The New York Times

06 April 20

The social network said it had made an “error” in threatening to ban the organizers of hand-sewn masks from posting or commenting on its site.

s health workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic plead for personal protective equipment, volunteer efforts to create hand-sewn masks and deliver them to medical professionals have quickly sprung up across the internet.

But those efforts were hampered by Facebook’s automated content moderation systems over the past week, according to sewing organizers who have used the social network to coordinate donation campaigns.

Facebook’s systems threatened to ban the organizers of hand-sewn masks from posting or commenting, they said, landing them in what is colloquially known as “Facebook Jail.” They said it also threatened to delete the groups. The issue has affected do-it-yourself mask makers in states like Pennsylvania, Illinois and California, they said.

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