The Madison County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page has been temporarily blocked by Facebook according to Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood. They discovered their page was suspended Tuesday, June 29th, following a post the department made in defense of the American flag and a local business.
Harwood said the department made a post in support of the owner of Madison Pharmacy, who was criticized by a member of the community for flying an American flag outside her business. He said it’s unbelievable that such a post would get taken down by Facebook. The Madison County Sheriff’s Office post was about the meaning of the American flag, including a poem titled, “I am the Flag.”
The only message the department has received from Facebook regarding the blocking, says, “If you think this doesn’t go against our Community Standards, let us know.”
Harwood said, “Yeah, I’m offended. My God, we’ve got lives that have been lost, battles that have been fought for this country, for the United States of America.” He went on to say he is done with Facebook and the department plans to create its own website to disseminate important information and will continue to rely on local media partners.
Facebook doesn’t have enough people to monitor all of its content. It uses an algorithm that goes through content searching for key words or phrases that might violate its “Community Standards.” Why it would block the Madison County Sheriff’s Department post is not known.
