As if the prospect of major local employer Tata Steel closing wasn't bad enough, Scunthorpe has now been dealt another blow: Facebook's over-zealous filters have banned people from promoting posts containing the name of the Lincolnshire town.

The reason? Facebook picks up on the 'c' word within Scunthorpe and presumes the post is rude and hence shouldn't be promoted.

The result? Residents of the town can't advertise their businesses or services. Visitors also haven't been able to promote the fact that they've dropped by.

The problem was discovered by band October Drift when they tried to promote an upcoming gig on their Facebook page.

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"As a band we like to promote our shows via Facebook," Dan Young from October Drift told The Independent. "But Facebook has none of it when trying to boost the posts."



The town's name can be written in a standard post. The problem only occurs when someone tries to pay to promote the post into other people's news feeds, and hence increase its reach.

This isn't a new issue. Indeed, it's even been named 'the Scunthorpe problem'. But you'd expect Facebook's filters to be attuned to it by now.

We've contacted Facebook for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

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