Facebook bans users over 'offensive' Sussex beauty spot name

Facebook users in a Brighton group have been reprimanded after talking about a popular Sussex beauty spot.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

A number of posts naming Devil's Dyke were removed and some of the group's members were removed by Facebook, it has been reported.

Facebook has acknowledged the error and a spokesman offered their apologies.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Retiree Glenys Horton is one of the moderators on the 'Brighton Life' Facebook page, which boasts some 58,000 members.

Stock imageStock image
Stock image

Glenys said she enjoys using the social media platform for genealogy, chatting with friends and sharing pictures

She said: "I don't know when it all kicked off to be honest but I have become aware of it after seeing messages from people on the group saying they have been banned by Facebook. It's just ridiculous but I understand because it is not a person sitting there moderating something.

"It must be a computer algorithm which is picking up words like these and may not know what a dyke is."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Dyke is used in places names all over the country and as a surname.

Glenys added: "The word has been around since the 1300s. There's dykes everywhere. It think it has been lost in translation."

She also compared the mass-banning to George Orwell's 1984.

"What else are they going to ban? One of my friends said 'hey-ho' and was given a short ban."

Related topics: