Facebook’s idea of ‘fact-checking’: Censoring ThinkProgress because conservative site told them to by Ian Millhiser
From the post:
Last year, Facebook announced that it would partner with The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, to “fact check” news articles that are shared on Facebook. At the time, ThinkProgress expressed alarm at this decision.
The Weekly Standard has a history of placing right-wing ideology before accurate reporting. Among other things, it labeled the Iraq War “A War to Be Proud Of” in 2005, and it ran an article in 2017 labeling climate science “Dadaist Science,” and promoted that article with the phrase “look under the hood on climate change ‘science’ and what you see isn’t pretty.”
The Weekly Standard brought its third-party “fact-checking” power to bear against ThinkProgress on Monday, when the outlet determined a ThinkProgress story about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was “false,” a category defined by Facebook to indicate “the primary claim(s) in this content are factually inaccurate.”
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To save you the suspense, the ThinkProgress story was true by any literate reading of its report and the claims by The Weekly Standard are false.
Millhiser details the financial impact of a “false” rating from Facebook, which reverberates through the system and the lack of responsiveness of The Weekly Standard when questioned about its “false” rating.
The Weekly Standard has been empowered by Facebook to become a scourge on free expression. Hold Facebook and The Weekly Standard accountable for their support and acts of censorship.