Posted on 02/22/2022 10:30:59 AM PST by Red Badger
Last week Instagram notified me that a viral post I had published was “fact checked” by a group called ‘The Healthy Indian Project’. My mother is from Bombay, and I did lose 40lbs last year, but I didn’t think they had created an entire unit just for me. So, I decided to find out who this group is. My findings are bemusing.
The Healthy Indian Project (‘THIP’) appears to have started as a fitness and lifestyle site in 2018. Its CEO – Sudipta Sengupta – is a life-long marketing consultant from a small city (Gurgaon, Haryana) in India.
The group is a member of the high-profile Poynter network called the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), though a two separate audits of its membership reveal concerns about non-partisanship, transparency, and the organization’s finances with a particular focus on a grant from the U.S.-based search engine Google:
“The applicant has shared proof of its status as a legally registered company. It has provided a balance sheet that indicates that the funding comes from its directors. They have mentioned a grant from Google this does not reflect in the balance sheet, we do not know if it accounts for more than 5% of the revenue. The balance sheet does not reflect any income or expenses.”
– IFCN assessor Surekha Deepak.
The network was added to Facebook’s “fact-checking” program – which includes Instagram – in the summer of 2021.
The B.S. ‘Fact-Check’. Here’s the context behind this investigation.
On February 6th, I shared a screenshot of a Paul Hsieh article from Forbes:
riginally entitled, “Could A ‘Morality Pill’ Help Stop The Covid-19 Pandemic?” the August 30th 2020 article discussed the “widespread administration of psychoactive drugs” that “could provide ‘moral enhancement’ that would make people more likely to adhere to social norms such as wearing masks and adhering to social distancing guidelines.”
In other words, Huxley’s Soma.
My highlighting of the article and its contents even garnered a retweet from current media ‘bad boy’ Joe Rogan, causing author Hsieh and outlet Forbes to both alter the headline and attach an amendment to the article insisting that Hsieh was not in favor of the “morality pill.”
But whether or not the author was in favor of the pill was not the point of my posts. I couldn’t care less what Hsieh’s position on the matter is. I care about the fact this is being discussed, or developed. Spreading the word was a way to warn people about this pill, not the opinion of some radiologist with 2,000 Twitter followers.
Regardless, the “fact check” article of my post is headlined: “Fact Check: Does Forbes’ article suggest the ‘morality pill’ to stop the COVID-19 pandemic?”
Again, to be clear, nowhere did I claim Forbes “suggested” the morality pill to “end the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The “fact check” now counts as a violation against my Facebook and Instagram pages, affecting reach and potentially leading to the removal of my pages from those platforms. Worse still, the “fact check” obfuscates the truth about this so-called “morality pill,” i.e. that it is actually a real discussion taking place in academic and “scientific” circles.
Who? The review of my posts was performed by someone who isn’t even listed on the staffing page for THIP": Dr. Shikha Shiromani.
There is scant information about anyone by that name online, and there is no headshot nor significant biography for the author on the THIP website.
This shady publishing practice, coupled with another assessment from the IFCN, raises questions as to whether or not people like Dr. Shiromani even exist.
In May 2020 IFCN assessor Kanchan Kaur wrote of THIP:
“The applicant has shared proof of its status as a legally registered company. It has provided a balance sheet that indicates that the funding comes from its directors. However, in the balance sheet, it does not show an expenses toward staff salaries and the like. Perhaps an explanation is in order.”
In fact, a lot of THIP’s online presence gives the feel of a chop-shop of people who may or may not exist. Even the so-called “Editorial Team” is a slipshod web page with half names, missing images, and biographies for just four people.
pete and re-pete
pete lies and re-pete swears to it
"So happy to be checking on your facts and I am to be finding them all to be wrongly."
Must be similar at Amazon. I wrote a pretty innocuous review of one item that I had a slight problem with, and they wouldn’t post it,
Probably the same ones that call you and tell you your computer has a Virus ,LOL
Somehow this reminds me of William F. Buckley’s line about trusting the first hundred names in the phonebook to run the country. I’d almost trust a room full of benighted Indians to do fact checking versus “trained in media” types.
They’re cheap..................
Hahaha
That was the expert? Wow-
I would think “no experience in journalism” would be a stellar qualification for the job.
Ah , but they have masters and PhD degrees from IIT and very high marks!
But they were really cheap for Google and have 20 titles, licences and diplomas that mean nothing.
Don’t say anything! Or else you’re a racist.
Donald Trump was a great president and curry taste terrible… “False!”
Donald Trump lost the presidential race and curry taste great… “True!”
For anyone interested in the truth about Indian IT scammers, Jim Brownings many videos are a must-watch. You will not find better detailed and documented proof of how they operate because he accesses their own CCTV cameras so you can see and hear them in operation in real time. Here’s a good starting point, part 1 of 4: https://youtu.be/le71yVPh4uk
There’s no doubt the “fact chckers” operated under the same shady ethics and fraudulent means of support.
btt
“Why choose Indians? “
You know those telemarketing calls about the “irs will be investigating you for fraud ..unless you pay us (at the irs)”? There’s at least hundreds of Youtube videos about Americans getting back at them.
They prevaricate extremely well, it appears to be a cultural thing. So if you want something fact checked with a particular spin, well they can do that for you.
Rd later.
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