Facebook mutes Weymouth church choir

It's a case of mistaken musical identity.

Author: Maria GreenwoodPublished 6th Nov 2020

Facebook have silenced a post made by a Weymouth Church Choir.

The video shows members of All Saints Choir in Wyke Regis singing carols - accompanied by Derek Griffin on the organ - in case there's a lockdown at Christmas.

The video was to let parishioners know it would be posted on the Churches Facebook page.

However the video was muted by international social media giant Facebook for copyright reasons, they thought it was a broadcast a recording of "O Little Town of Bethlehem by Michael Nicholas sung by The Choir of Norwich Cathedral".

Gary Hepburn, churchwarden of All Saints church who was doing the video said:

"Its a great accolade for facebook to think our choir was Norwich Cathedral Choir, but I can assure them it was all live and our choir's own work accompanied by Derek Griffin on the organ, not a recording by someone else. Because Facebook is such a large organisation we have been unable to speak to anyone to put them right on this."

"We are very grateful for the hard work of our choir and other church volunteers who have done everything possible to ensure the church can continue to provide services and other activities for the community throughout the coronavirus pandemic".