Facebook has labeled a quote by St. Augustine as hate speech, according to the director of a pro-life group.
“Facebook has repeatedly banned a quote from St. Augustine every time I’ve posted it. And it’s not some fire and brimstone ‘Sinners are going to hell!’ quote, but in fact, quite the opposite,” wrote Domenico Bettinelli, director of community engagement for Massachusetts Citizens for Life, in a blog post.
PJ Media reported the quote came from a St. Augustine homily included in the Roman Catholic Church’s official liturgical books.
The offending quote:
Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon. But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.
Bettinelli said that after a friend told him Facebook removed the quote without an explanation, he and others posted the quote themselves to see what would happen.
He said he received notification from Facebook informing him that the St. Augustine quote “goes against community standards on hate speech.”
“Part of the problem here is that this takedown notice leaves me with no understanding of how I violated their policy,” Bettinelli wrote.
Facebook provides only a definition of hate speech:
We define hate speech as a direct attack on people based on what we call protected characteristics — race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disease or disability. We also provide some protections for immigration status. We define attack as violent or dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, or calls for exclusion or segregation.
Bettinelli wrote that he shared the quote so many times he’s been told that his account will be suspended if he does it again.