Prof challenges Facebook for removing Warren controversy page

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The owner of a website that details various controversies surrounding Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had an accompanying Facebook page taken down after it was deemed in violation of Facebook's policy against impersonation -- a decision the company eventually reversed Tuesday.

William Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell Law School, owns and runs elizabethwarrenwiki.org — a website dedicated to various controversies surrounding the Democratic presidential candidate, particularly her claims of having Native American heritage.

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He also ran an accompanying Facebook page, which posted articles from the site.

“It was a way of getting the content out to the public,” he told Fox News in an interview.

But on Monday afternoon, Jacobson received a notice saying the page had been taken down for violating Facebook's policies regarding impersonation. Facebook’s community standards forbid users from using other peoples’ images to deceive or mislead people about the origin of the content.

"Pages, groups and events must not impersonate or falsely represent a brand, entity or public figure," the policies state. "Where a Page, group or event is being used to express support for or interest in a brand, entity or public figure, it must make clear in the name or description that it is not an official representation."

But Jacobson maintains the page was in line with Facebook standards as it carried a disclaimer saying it was not affiliated with Warren’s campaign or Senate office. He posted a screengrab of the disclaimer in an article for Legal Insurrection. He also said the site never attempted to impersonate Warren, even with the disclaimer.

“The page is called 'Elizabeth Warren Wiki' and it has a link to the wiki website and all of the content posted was from the wiki website, so no one could look at the page and think this is her campaign or Senate office because everything was from the wiki website,” he said.

“I think we covered all our bases, and I don’t know how this happened,” he said.

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Jacobson said he immediately filed an appeal via the Facebook process. By Tuesday evening, the page was restored.

"This page was mistakenly removed and has been restored," Joe Osborne, a Facebook spokesman, told Fox News in an email.

In his original article flagging his concerns, Jacobson wrote: "It’s another reminder, as when our YouTube page was taken down without warning, that we can’t rely on big tech."

Before the page was restored, Jacobson wondered if a recent feud between Warren’s supporters and those of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was partly responsible.

“All I know is the last couple of days there was a Twitter war between Bernie and Warren supporters, and Bernie’s supporters were linking to the wiki website,” he said. “It might be pure coincidence or it might be that someone decided to complain to Facebook about the page.”

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The suspension came just as comments emerged from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg warning that the company may have to sue the government if Warren becomes president.

"You have someone like Elizabeth Warren thinks that the right answer is to break up the companies … I mean, if she gets elected president then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge," Zuckerberg said in July, according to The Verge.