Facebook is facing backlash after removing several posts celebrating the hiring of Black Principals in the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) district in Kentucky.

According to Carolyn Callahan, JCPS chief of communications, they always share their new hires of principals on the social media website. Since May, JCPS published 11 Facebook posts highlighting all the new principals, six are white, and five are Black. While some posts remained untouched, other posts were removed, leaving school district officials discovering a troubling trend.

“Anytime we have a new principal, we put a post on all of our social media platforms,” Callahan said. “Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. It has never been an issue for us before. When it happened once, we thought,’Okay, maybe we are doing something wrong.’ Two times, three times, four times, five times, Black female principals were removed and every white principal, six of them, stayed up.”

John Marshall, JCPS Chief Equity Officer, expressed his frustration when the changes were made and once again removed. He tweeted on his Twitter account, asking why the posts were seen as a violation.

“Hey @Facebook, @JCPSKY recently put up 11 posts announcing new principals. 5 were Black. 6 were white,” Marshall tweeted. “You took down all posts celebrating the Black principals. You say the posts violated your Community Standards on spam. WHY?”

Andy Stone, a spokesman for Facebook, issued a statement saying the company is investigating the situation.

“These posts were accidentally removed by our automated systems,” Stone wrote. “We sincerely regret the error and are looking into how it turned out.”

A Facebook representative contacted Callahan earlier this week, and all posts featuring Black principals have been reinstated.

Blavity-UBlavity-U-NewsJefferson County Public School