This article is part of the Free Speech Project, a collaboration between Future Tense and the Tech, Law, & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law that examines the ways technology is influencing how we think about speech.
Ville de Bitche is a town situated in northwestern France with a rich military history, pastoral landscape, and an unfortunate sounding name. (The “e” is silent.) Recently tiny Bitche made international headlines after Facebook mistook the city’s name for a swear word and deleted the town’s Facebook page. The city’s communication manager, Valêrie Degouy, contacted Facebook on March 19 to explain the situation and ask the company to reverse its decision for the second time. (The page was previously deleted in 2016.) As she awaited Facebook’s response which apologized and reinstated the page Tuesday Degouy set up a new page for her town, under the name of Marie 57230, her city’s postal code.