Facebook admits it incorrectly 'fact-checked' iconic Trump photo taken moments after assassination attempt: 'This was an error'

Big Tech is coming under fire for allegedly attempting to interfere with the upcoming presidential election in November.

On Monday, a screenshot was circulated on social media that showed a "fact-check" label over the iconic photograph of former President Donald Trump with his fist in the air moments after getting shot in the recent assassination attempt in Bulter, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

The screenshot, taken on Meta's Facebook and Instagram, claimed that the picture of Trump was "altered."

'This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake.'

"Independent fact-checkers reviewed a similar photo and said it was altered in a way that could mislead people," the disclaimer read. "Facebook determined your post has the same altered photo and added a notice to the post."

"People who repeatedly share false information might have their posts moved lower in News Feed so other people are less likely to see them," Facebook added.

The disclaimer cited a "fact-check" article by USA Today on July 15 that showed a similar photograph of Trump; however, in that picture, the Secret Service agents around the former president appeared to be smiling. The news outlet determined that the agents' faces were altered in that photograph, which was circulated on social media, with some users claiming the smiles indicated it was a staged photo op.

"The image was doctored to change the facial expressions of the agents. They are not smiling in the original photo," USA Today determined.

The post on Facebook and Instagram that was slapped with a fact-check disclaimer featured the original, unaltered photograph of Trump and the Secret Service agents.

The incorrect label sparked backlash that Big Tech companies are attempting to suppress the assassination attempt from online archives ahead of the upcoming election.

Meta spokesperson Dani Lever responded to the concern on X, writing, "Yes, this was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake."

Just last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the photograph "bada**," Blaze News previously reported.

"I mean, on a personal note ... seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag [in the background] is one of the most bada** things I've ever seen in my life," he said during a recent Bloomberg interview. "On some level, as an American, it's ... hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that's why a lot of people like the guy."

Anything else?

Social media users torched Google over the weekend after some discovered that its search's "Autocomplete" feature was not populating results related to the recent shooting on July 13, Blaze News reported.

Google stated, "There was no manual action taken. Our systems have protections against Autocomplete predictions associated with political violence, which were working as intended prior to this horrific event."

"We're working on improvements to ensure our systems are more up to date. Of course, Autocomplete is just a tool to help people save time, and they can still search for anything they want to. Following this terrible act, people turned to Google to find high-quality information – we connected them with helpful results, and will continue to do so," it added.

Bing's autofill feature prompted a comparable result. Microsoft did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

Meta's AI chat was similarly accused of trying to block information related to the shooting after it failed to provide any details about the incident when prompted over the weekend. Meta has since apparently attempted to "fix" the issue.

A Meta spokesperson told Blaze News, "We know people have been seeing incomplete, inconsistent, or out of date information on this topic. We're implementing a fix to provide more up-to-date responses for inquiries, and it is possible people may continue to see inaccurate responses in the meantime."

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