St Augustine of Hippo has been targeted by Facebook for ‘‘hate speech’’. Two priests quoted the 5th-century saint’s warning against hypocrisy: “Our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon … But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others … Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.” An algorithm flagged the quote as “hate speech”, possibly because of the words “men are hopeless creatures”. Blogger Domenico Bettinelli drew attention to the ban. After the story was picked up by the Times, a Facebook spokesman said: “We’ve reviewed this post and can confirm it was removed in error. It has now been restored.”