Facebook briefly bans content from Zero Hedge

UPDATE: Facebook says the ban was a mistake and it has since been lifted. “We use a combination of human review and automation to enforce on our policies around spam and in this case, our automation incorrectly blocked this link. As soon as we identified the issue, we worked quickly to fix it,” a spokeswoman said.

Facebook has blocked its users from sharing links to Zero Hedge, a popular blog that is focused on finance, politics, and current events. A spokesperson for Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This post goes against our Community Standards, so no one else can see it,” Facebook says when a user tries to share a link to Zero Hedge. The ban was first reported on Monday afternoon.

The ban applies to all content on Zero Hedge, which ranks as the 662nd most popular website in the U.S., according to Alexa.com. It’s unknown if the ban is permanent, temporary, or the result of an error.

A spokesperson for Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

“We were especially surprised by this action as neither prior to this seemingly arbitrary act of censorship, nor since, were we contacted by Facebook with an explanation of what ‘community standard’ had been violated or what particular filter or article had triggered the blanket rejection of all Zero Hedge content,” the blog said.

Articles on Zero Hedge are written by anonymous editors who focus on news that relates to finance, politics, and current events. Some have criticized the website for content that is unproven, false, or linked to conspiracy theories.