Facebook's left-wing 'fact checkers'

Epoch Times:

While social media giant Facebook portrays its fact-checking feature as neutral and independent, the personnel, funding streams, and credentialing mechanism behind the participating organizations indicates otherwise.

Facebook launched the fact-checking feature shortly after Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016. It says it has since partnered with more than 50 fact-checking organizations around the world. Only a handful of them, however, appear to be focused on American content.

Media Research Center (MRC), a right-leaning media watchdog, identified nine Facebook fact checkers relevant to American content: Reuters, USA Today, Lead Stories, Check Your Fact, Factcheck.org, Politifact, Science Feedback, The Associated Press, and AFP Fact-Check. Only one of the organizations has a right-leaning background—the Daily Caller’s Check Your Fact.

Facebook didn’t respond to a request for further information, such as its full list of fact-checkers and how much Facebook pays them for the service. Some of the fact-checkers have indicated they are getting paid by Facebook.

Posts flagged as false by the partners not only get furnished with a warning label and a link to the fact check, but are also throttled on the platform, meaning Facebook “significantly reduces the number of people who see it,” the company says on its website.

The fact checks have been a matter of controversy. In 2019, Facebook throttled the page of anti-abortion group Live Action after two of its videos made a claim labeled “false” by one of the fact-checkers.

It later turned out the fact-checker relied on comments by two abortionists. In response, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a letter saying the videos were justified in saying that “abortion is never medically necessary.”

Facebook recently positioned itself as a major and unprecedented influence in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election after its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced new election-related content rules, a $300 million donation to local election offices, and a drive to help 4 million people register and vote this year. Some experts have already started to raise alarm about Facebook’s influence on the election process.
What gets fact-checked is determined by Facebook based on “signals, like feedback from people on Facebook,” but the partners can also fact-check whatever they want.

Facebook fact-checkers need to be certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). Facebook describes the organization as nonpartisan, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

The IFCN was set up by Poynter, a journalism nonprofit, and in 2019, was almost entirely funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar—a major Democrat donor—as well as Google and progressive billionaire George Soros. Facebook is also listed as one of the previous donors.

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What I have noticed about the Facebook "fact checks" is that they many times appear more argumentive than factual.  They try to nullify someone's point of view with a different point of view rather than with facts.  They tend to make excuses for liberals.

Facebook needs more conservatives to review the fact-checking process to ensure that it is fair.