Recently, many Facebook users were frustrated to find that they could not post the phrase, “everyone will know.” Although the social media site quickly solved the problem, the incident has raised this question with thoughtful Facebook users: when is Facebook no longer protecting information but simply censoring its users?

Paper dolls

In the case of the “everyone will know” incident, Facebook simply made a mistake. The site’s spam-fighting engine saw that an inordinate amount of people were posting the phrase, and, through a glitch in the system, added “everyone will know” to its list of spam items. Consequentially, when anyone used the phrase, the site marked it as spam and would not allow the message to post.

This particular case is benign, and Facebook acknowledged the error. But, the site had no obligation to lift the phrase ban. Facebook, like all social media networks, is a privately owned company, free to do whatever it pleases (for the most part). In all probability, the site could censor certain phrases.

Regardless of the question of censorship, the content marketer can draw a much more pertinent lesson from the whole affair: “everyone will know” was marked as spam because so many people used the phrase—it became too repetitive to retain any meaning. You must always be mindful of what you put on Facebook. Even if the company doesn’t officially mark your repetitious material as spam, the average user will most certainly block it in his mind.

See Social Media Examiner for more.