On April 1, 2025, Heather Cox Richardson, the author of the politically left-leaning Substack "Letters from an American" and a history professor at Boston College, posted (archived) on Facebook that the social media platform had removed at least two of her posts from her page.
Richardson wrote:
Hi Folks: my two posts from last night have disappeared for many of us, including me and Buddy, but appear to be here for others. I'm trying to figure it out but if anyone has any ideas, do let me know in the comments. Eager to see if this post shows up. H.
Commenters said posts had also disappeared from their feeds and Richardson's page when they tried to view them on their devices. Several commenters said the missing posts dated from March 25 onward.
Richardson also wrote (archived) about the posts on her Bluesky account, "Facebook appears to be taking down my posts. ... I guess if I'm being banned I'm doing something right?"
Following Richardson's posts, Facebook users shared a separate
The reader reported that the chatbot said Facebook was deleting Richardson's posts "as part of a larger removal of online resources by the US government."
At the time of this writing, Richardson's Facebook page showed posts daily from March 25 to April 3, 2025. Richardson's posts typically begin with the date of the previous day. This was also the case for the posts we viewed from March 25 to April 3, indicating that they were original postings as opposed to reposts of removed content.
We reached out to Richardson to ask exactly which posts were removed before she made her April 1 post as well as when she noticed the posts were missing and whether she had contacted Meta about their removal.
We also reached out to Meta for comment on whether the posts were removed from Facebook, and if so how and why, and await a reply.
Unfurling claims about the disappeared posts
The timeline for the alleged removal of Richardson's Facebook posts at the time of this writing was as follows:
- April 1: Richardson said on Facebook that some of her posts had gone missing. Commenters agreed, some indicating the removal included posts dating back to March 25.
- April 1-3: Facebook users began to circulate the copy-pasted text of a post from one of Richardson's followers, who claimed that "Facebook AI" said Richardson's posts were removed as part of government action to "eliminate content related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, gender identity, and other topics."
- April 3: Richardson's Facebook page showed daily posts from March 15 to April 3.
The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, a tool used to archive webpages at moments in time, did not have any functional snapshots of Richardson's Facebook page between March 26 and April 3, 2025. As a result, we were unable to compare versions captured on different days to confirm whether any published posts were missing during the period in question.
The copy-pasted Facebook post with the "Facebook AI" response read as follows (our emphasis):
So a page I read from a historian is now suddenly getting daily posts deleted . When I asked AI Facebook why this was their response . This is kind of scary. Social media is being deleted if Viewpoints differs..... So much for free speech. Note she does not work for the federal government nor is she a part of a federal agency.
Heather Cox Richardson posts are being deleted as part of a larger removal of online resources by the US government. This removal is in compliance with executive orders from President Donald Trump's administration, which aim to eliminate content related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, gender identity, and other topics ¹.
Richardson, a historian and professor, is known for her newsletters and social media posts that provide historical context to current events. Her work often touches on topics like democracy, equality, and social justice, which might be affected by the executive orders ².
The removed content includes over 8,000 web pages and approximately 3,000 datasets across various federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Census Bureau, and the Department of Justice ¹.
By the time of this writing, the Facebook user who appeared to have first posted the text updated the post to note that Richardson's posts "were returned."
In an attempt to reproduce the "Facebook AI" response from the copy-pasted posts stating the "government" removed Richardson's posts, we also asked the Meta AI chatbot about the alleged removal. However, we were unsuccessful in replicating the response that appeared in that post.
We tried two prompts on Meta AI: "Why were Heather Cox Richardson's Facebook posts deleted?" and "Did the government delete Heather Cox Richardson's Facebook posts?" Neither produced the answer from the April 1 Facebook post.
(Meta AI)
The answers we
Q: Why were Heather Cox Richardson's Facebook posts deleted?
A: Heather Cox Richardson's Facebook posts were deleted due to Facebook's algorithm flagging her content. According to reports, Facebook appears to be hiding or deleting her posts, which has been confirmed by Richardson herself. This issue has sparked concerns about censorship and the arbitrary application of Facebook's community standards. Richardson's followers have also reported difficulty in viewing and sharing her content, further fueling the controversy.
Q: Did the government delete Heather Cox Richardson's Facebook posts?
A: There's no evidence to suggest that the government deleted Heather Cox Richardson's Facebook posts. According to Richardson herself, Facebook appears to be removing her posts, including two recent ones critical of the Trump regime. This issue has raised concerns about censorship and Facebook's content moderation policies, but there's no indication of government involvement.
It's worth noting that AI chatbots like Meta AI or the popular ChatGPT don't always give the same answers to the same questions asked at different times, even when the wording is identical. In this case, we didn't know what the writer of the original Facebook post had asked Meta AI to generate their response so we guessed at likely prompts, even leading Meta AI on with a second question exclusively about the possibility of government involvement.
Social media platforms remain rulers of content visibility
Richardson herself suggested on Bluesky that Facebook was banning her page.
Facebook removes posts for various reasons outlined in its Community Standards. None of its standards are overtly related to politics, a running theme in Richardson's posts, but do include things such as "hateful conduct" and "misinformation." A page on Facebook's Help Center notes that it uses both human teams and automated technology to review content to ensure that it adheres to Community Standards.
Users can dispute the removal of content that Facebook takes down through a review process. It was unclear at the time of this writing whether Richardson had restored her posts through review.
This feature was the result of work started in 2021 to reduce political content for people who did not wish to see it.
Then, in January 2025, Meta announced it was phasing "civic content," described as "posts about elections, politics or social issues," back into users' feeds by "treating civic content from people and Pages you follow on Facebook more like any other content in your feed." This was part of Facebook's commitment to free speech, Meta said in a news release.
It was unclear how Meta's policies on political content could have affected the visibility of Richardson's generally politically left-leaning posts.
Another, more secretive way social media users and digital rights organizations suggest posts could disappear from followers' views is shadow banning, a practice in which platforms hide a user's posts from viewers but do not prevent that user from posting.
Though the practice of shadow banning is a common topic of discussion among social media users, large social media platforms like
Facebook has never officially confirmed whether it uses shadow banning practices. Richardson did not publicly theorize that Facebook had shadow-banned her account.
In conclusion, without input from Meta or Richardson, it's hard to know exactly what, if anything, happened to Richardson's posts.
It was not possible to show through archived website snapshots that posts had indeed gone missing from Richardson's page. Richardson did not return a request for comment about whether she was told the reason for the alleged takedowns, and she did not comment on the issue publicly other than to say that posts had disappeared. We will update this piece with any relevant information.
Snopes has reported extensively on changes made to U.S. government websites following U.S. President Donald Trump's executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion.