Meta has blocked all posts from The Kansas Spotlight Thursday after the nonprofit newspaper criticized Facebook, owned by Meta, and other forms of social media in an article.
The article, titled “When Facebook Fails, Local Media Matters Even More for the Future of Our Planet,” directly denounces Meta and Facebook for suppressing climate change-related posts and highlights the role of local media in stepping up.
“We fare well without Facebook’s promotional help, but it seems problematic that a behemoth like Meta could dictate the terms of our communications,” documentary producer Dave Kendall wrote in his opinion piece.
Related: Mark Zuckerberg told Meta Engineers he “understands” Snapchat’s privacy protections
According to an article on Friday by The spotlightFacebook blocked the publication from sharing Kendall’s opinion on Thursday and then removed all links to the outlet on its platform.
Andy Stone, director of communications at Meta, he apologized for Thursday’s mistake and said the mistake “had nothing to do with the Reflector’s recent criticism of Meta.” He stated that the error had been corrected.
Facebook had reported all posts linked to on Friday Kansas Spotlight— except for anything that linked to Kendall’s article, which was still available for a period of time.
By Friday evening, the issue had been fully resolved and users could log on and view Kendall’s article.
Related: Meta sues a former vice president who left the company for a competing AI startup
Independent journalist Marisa Kabas republished the Kansas Reflector article on Friday “in an attempt to evade Meta’s censorship” and said the damage had already been done: the articles had already been flagged as malicious.
“This is a big problem because it undermines our confidence,” Kabas told CNN Business.