Facebook’s unglamorous mistakes

In a Facebook group for gardeners, the social network’s automated systems sometimes flagged discussions about a common backyard tool as inappropriate sexual talk.

Facebook froze the accounts of some Native Americans years ago because its computers mistakenly believed that names like Lance Browneyes were fake.

The company repeatedly rejected ads from businesses that sell clothing for people with disabilities, mostly in a mix-up that confused the products for medical promotions, which are against its rules.

Facebook, which has renamed itself Meta, and other social networks must make tricky judgment calls to balance supporting free expression while keeping out unwanted material like imagery of child sexual abuse, violent incitements and financial scams. But that’s not what happened in the examples above. Those were mistakes made by a computer that couldn’t…