Facebook's strange 'fact-checking' of opinions

 Paula Bolyard:

Last month PJ Media ran a syndicated column by radio host Dennis Prager—an opinion piece about the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A few days later, the article was rated “factually inaccurate” by the supposedly “nonpartisan” fact-checkers at Facebook partner Health Feedback, an organization under the umbrella of France-based “Science Feedback.”

This is not the first time we’ve been fact-checked by this activist group masquerading as a fact-checking organization. In fact, Townhall Media sites, including Townhall, RedState, and PJ Media, have been fact-checked at least 20 times over the last two years. The vast majority of these attacks were not fact checks at all, rather differences of opinion on policy issues, particularly in the areas of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. These intrepid keepers of the facts work overtime to make sure you don’t see or hear any wrongthink about either of these topics and they are using the immense power granted to them by Facebook to censor speech that doesn’t conform to the leftist narrative.

When an article gets slapped with a fact check, it sets in motion a series of events that work both to suppress the story and to punish the publisher. First, Facebook slows the reach of the article, ensuring that it cannot be widely shared. If users do manage to share it, Facebook slaps a warning on the story, alerting readers that it contains false or partly false information, and imploring them to read additional “reporting” from the fact-checkers.

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Worse, Facebook oftentimes reduces the reach of all the articles posted by a publisher if there are fact checks that haven’t been resolved to the censors’ satisfaction. The punishment meted out by Facebook not only has financial repercussions for sites like PJ Media, but it also harms our ability to discuss alternative opinions and highlight stories that the mainstream media refuses to cover.

As Katie Pavlich explained at our sister site Townhall, Science Feedback “has repeatedly ‘fact-checked’ Townhall pieces about climate change, labeling them false after ignoring context, falsely rebutting factual climate data, and effectively removing all debate about climate change from Facebook. They also suppress debate on other topics and regularly censor thoroughly sourced stories about CDC guidance, masks, vaccines and more.”

“According to Science Feedback’s own fact-checking standards, they should be ‘following an unbiased approach to guarantee objectivity,'” Pavlich says. “Instead, the site—sanctioned by Facebook—is engaged in an extremely biased approach to climate and general science by accepting only one view on these issues. Ironically, this is an anti-science approach. True science is dedicated to debate and experimentation, not conforming to a set narrative from Facebook ‘fact-checkers.'”

Needless to say, shutting down legitimate debate on important issues our nation is facing is not healthy—nor is it in any sense democratic — especially in areas related to a nationwide health crisis.

Health Feedback declares that it is “dedicated to science education” and that its “reviews are crowdsourced directly from a community of scientists with relevant expertise.” Its lofty mission also includes explaining “whether and why information is or is not consistent with the science and to help readers know which news to trust.” Its companion site, Climate Feedback, claims to be “a worldwide network of scientists sorting fact from fiction in climate change media coverage.” Its goal “is to help readers know which news to trust.”

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The problem is that not all scientists agree on what actions should be taken to address climate change—or even the extent to which climate change is attributable to human activity. And there is by no means a consensus in the medical community on how best to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The international response and the accompanying science have evolved as more has become known about the virus and successful mitigation strategies.

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I often am critical of Facebook fact checks on Biden's responsibility for the increase in the price of gas.  Their fact-checks on this subject just are not credible.  To suggest that the increase in the price is caused by increased consump[tion ignores the fact that it has not increased from pre-pandemic levels and is still lower.  Whomever the fact-checkers are at Facebook putting out this false information ignore things Biden has done that impact the price such as halting drilling on federally controlled sites, thus reducing the future supply.  Canceling pipelines also increases the transportation cost of getting the oil to and from refineries.