New York Times columnist discovers people can get stories featuring their houses removed from Facebook


There's a surprisingly easy, but apparently little known way to get a news article taken down from Facebook, The New York Times' media columnist Ben Smith writes.
Smith made his discovery after talking to a senior Facebook lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity (with the company's approval) about the decision to remove a New York Post article detailing how much a Black Lives Matter activist paid for her house from the platform. The Post, which traditionally leans to the right on the political spectrum, accused Facebook of trying to silence its journalism, but Smith learned that the decision fell under company policy. The specific rule is that if an article shows your house or apartment, you can complain to Facebook, which will then make sure none of its users can share the article on their timeline or via Facebook Messenger.
There don't appear to be any ifs, ands, or buts, about the policy, either. Dozens of articles could be taken down per day if people wanted; for example, Smith writes that, hypothetically, if former President Donald Trump was "annoyed about a story that includes a photo of him outside his suite at Mar-a-Lago" he could bring it up with Facebook and get it taken down. The main reason that doesn't happen, Smith suggests, seems to be the simple fact that few people are aware of the policy, which the Facebook lawyer described as "super clear." Read more at The New York Times.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
10 concert tours to see this upcoming fall
The Week Recommends Get ready for pumpkin spice season with concerts from big-name artists
-
How to put student loan payments on pause
The Explainer If you are starting to worry about missing payments, deferment and forbearance can help
-
Is Kash Patel’s fate sealed after Kirk shooting missteps?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The FBI’s bungled response in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting has director Kash Patel in the hot seat
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year