White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino, left, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, center, talk as White House National Security Advisor, John Bolton, right, walks behind them in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington during President Donald Trump’s meeting to discuss potential damage from Hurricane Michael, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Facebook is apologizing to the White House after mistaking the Trump administration’s social media director for a bot. Facebook blocked some features of the new account of Dan Scavino on Monday. Scavino responded with an angry post, asking why he was being silenced. In a statement Tuesday, Facebook said its automated systems thought Scavino was a bot. A spokesperson said the social media network caps the amount of identical activity coming from one account in a short period of time, which can have the unintended consequence of preventing real people from engaging in such activity.