Facebook apologizes after Plymouth Hoe falls victim to Scunthorpe problem

Facebook has issued an apology after posts relating to Plymouth Hoe were erroneously flagged up for containing offensive language.

Plymouth Hoe is an area of the South Western English city of Plymouth, and it caused the same problems as places such as Cockermouth, Scunthorpe and Devil's Dyke for obscenity filters. The social network not only removed posts for using the word 'Hoe', but also closed down groups relating to the area.

See also:

• Beeper is a cross-platform messaging tool that supports iMessage, WhatsApp and more
• Facebook is banning all mentions of 'stop the steal'
• Facebook explains why millions of users are losing access to key features

Facebook has since apologized for banning users on the basis of using an offensive term, even though it is legitimate part of the name. Similar problems have beset people trying to write about the town of Scunthorpe -- the so-called Scunthorpe problem -- and users had to resort to inserting spaces in the name to avoid feeling the wrath of a ban hammer.

A spokesperson for the social network said:

These posts were removed in error and we apologize to those who were affected. We're looking into what happened and will take steps to rectify the error.

This is unlikely, however, to be the last time a place name or person's name causes issues for Facebook's rules.

Image credit: durantelallera / Shutterstock