Facebook banned mentions of a waterway in Norfolk, England, called Cockshoot Dyke. The platform has previously banned names of other places in the UK.
Cockshoot Dyke is a popular Norfolk Broads tourist attraction. Its name, however, was deemed too rude by Facebook’s content moderation systems.
The administrator of the Facebook page Love the Norfolk Broads, Steve Burgess, said the first instance of censorship was when a member wrote that she was stuck in the dyke. The post was immediately removed, for containing the words “cock,” shoot,” and “dyke.”
Facebook claimed the post violated its policies on “violence and sexual content.”
“They have put two and two together and got 58,” Burgess told The Sun. “The irony is that you see so much that is really obscene or violent or sexual but nothing is done.”
Business owners in the area also claimed to have been censored for posting pictures of the dyke.
Facebook has previously censored mentions of other places in the UK because of their names, such as the Devil’s Dyke in Sussex and Plymouth Hoe.
