Will Meta take down this post, too?

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — It’s been nearly a week since St. Patrick’s Day, when I posted photos from the annual parade in Cedar Rapids, a post that was almost immediately removed by Meta when I shared it on Facebook.

“To keep people safe,” the AI system noted, “we ask everyone using our technology to follow rules. Our technology found your content doesn’t follow our Community Standards. As a result, our technology took action.”

The notice cited “misleading links or content to trick people to visit, or stay on, a website.”

“Cedar Rapids celebrates 50 years of St. Patrick’s Day parade” was the headline that apparently involves some type of voodoo sorcery that deceives Facebook users into looking at photos of pooches wearing green hats and other such wizardry.

See the “unsafe” St. Patrick’s 50th anniversary parade photos

I requested a review and was assured by their “technology” that I would hear back soon, with most people getting an answer within four days.

Meta still has not answered after six days.

“If we find we made a mistake, we will change the original decision,” their AI stated.

Fortunately, Meta cares about my freedom of expression, further stating “We want you to share freely with others. We only remove things or restrict people to keep the community respectful and safe.”

This isn’t my first parade rodeo.

It is, however, the first time my parade photos have been removed from Facebook, though I have heard recently of others who have had photos from protests removed.

I’ve been covering parades in Cedar Rapids for more than a decade, including not only the St. Patrick’s Day parade, but Houby Days, (the mushroom celebration in Czech Village), Freedom Festival and others.

See: Hannah Stuelke leads Houby Days Parade

People love parades. They really do. But they can’t always attend due to prior obligations, physical limitations or other reasons.

So, for free, I bring the parades to them, with photos honoring our veterans, the musicians, nonprofit organizations, volunteers and other people who spend time to organize and participate in these annual events.

As a past parade volunteer and participant, I understand the time commitment and effort involved. Those people deserve to be recognized for their work.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade included a CR Pride float, as it has in years past. Was that what Meta flagged as violating their community standards, or was it triggered by the word “parade” or something else?

I will probably never know.

Back in 2020, Facebook “unpublished” my Homegrown Facebook page, claiming I was an “imposter.”

More: Facebook called me an imposter; here is my response

Years later, I have yet to hear why Facebook took that action and my page, along with all of my content, was never restored.

So far, the social media site, Bluesky, has not removed my parade post.

If you’re not on Bluesky, give it a try and if you are, you can follow me for parade coverage and much more from Iowa, here: Bsky.app/Homegrown Iowan