BY TYLER O'NEIL JULY 23, 2019

Last week, Facebook repeatedly blocked a rather boilerplate quote from the Christian church father St. Augustine of Hippo. PJ Media's John Ellis reported the story. When PJ Media reader Lynn Epstein went to share it, her post was blocked. When she appealed the block, Facebook suspended her for 30 days, claiming she had posted "hate speech."

Epstein posted the link to Ellis's story with this message, "Pulled from one of St. Augustine's homilies included in the Roman Catholic Church's official liturgical books, THE OFFENDING QUOTE IS THIS:

Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon. But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.

Facebook blocked the post, claiming it went against the company's "Community Standards." Epstein contested the ban, and then Facebook reviewed it. After the review, a staffer insisted again that the post violated the "Community Standards."





As an explanation, the social media company pointed to its policy against "hate speech."

"We do not allow hate speech on Facebook because it creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion and in some cases may promote real-world violence," the Community Standards explain. "We define hate speech as a direct attack on people used on what we call protected characteristics — race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disease or disability. We also provide some protections for immigration status."

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