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Facebook Has Admitted Its Error, But Its ‘Fact Checkers’ Are Still Complicit In Censorship
https://thefederalist.com/2025/01/08/facebook-has-admitted-its-error-but-its-fact-checkers-are-still-complicit-in-censorship/ ^ | January 08, 2025 | Mark Hemingway

Posted on 01/08/2025 12:41:34 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

Mark Zuckerberg wants to turn over a new leaf on the social media censorship — but some in the media don’t seem happy about giving up the power to silence people.

Tuesday morning, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta’s social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads would be eliminating their heavy-handed censorship policies and moving towards a “community notes” model for policing content like X. This includes terminating their “third party factchecking program” where the company paid legacy media organizations to “fact check” content on the site and then used those judgments to censor content.

At this point there’s little reason to believe that Mark Zuckerberg can do much to atone for what he did to suppress speech and damage conservative publications. However, on the surface level this is a significant PR victory for free speech and, unsurprisingly, Facebook’s fact checking partners are not taking it well. Aaron Sharockman, the executive director of PolitiFact which is one of Facebook/Meta’s original fact checking partners going back eight years, just posted this defensive letter on X. Some of the highlights:

The decision to remove independent journalists from Facebook’s content moderation program in the United States has nothing to do with free speech or censorship. Mark Zuckerberg could not be less subtle. …

Facebook and Meta solely created the penalties that publishers faced and the warning labels and overlays that users saw. It was Facebook and Meta that created a system that allowed ordinary citizens to see their posts demoted but exempted politicians and political leaders who said the very same things. In case it needs to be said, PolitiFact and U.S. fact-checking journalists played no role in the decison to remove Donald Trump from Facebook. …

When we make an error...


(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: censorship; facebook; internet; socialmedia; zuckerberg

1 posted on 01/08/2025 12:41:34 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

You mean they were wrong when they covered over as “violent content” an image of Santa Claus kneeling in prayer to the infant Jesus?

Filthy leftist scumbags.


2 posted on 01/08/2025 12:45:02 PM PST by Williams (Thank God for the election of President Trump!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Zuckerberg was so condescending and a two-dimensional liar when he said he was going to do away with the bias at Facebook.

He's just trying to find a new way to lie that sounds more acceptable to the hayseeds.

Overrated clown.

3 posted on 01/08/2025 12:57:05 PM PST by caddie
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
"Error"?

It was never errors. It was all intentional.

4 posted on 01/08/2025 12:59:53 PM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I am pro-censorship. If you have competition. It is free speech. Censorship is bad when you have a monopoly.


5 posted on 01/08/2025 1:00:33 PM PST by jroehl (And how we burned in the camps later - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I once ran a conservative news site that got nearly 100% of traffic from Facebook. In the middle of 2016, my traffic and revenue suddenly collapsed by 98%, and I had to shut it down. Lost a ton of money, as did so many others with far larger sites which thankfully survived. Meanwhile leftist news sites thrived and got record traffic to this day.


6 posted on 01/08/2025 1:04:32 PM PST by montag813
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Why does he have to “phase out” the censorship? He didn’t phase the sh*t in.


7 posted on 01/08/2025 1:09:39 PM PST by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves, and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I gave up on Facebook years ago.
Never did Meta.
I have a Computer science BS degree.
I went to school with these kinds of people.
I was an older student as I had been in the military,
have a family, and worked full time.
I know most these young kids are nutcases
taught by nutcases. My professors figured out I was
not to be messed with like they could the kids.
I’d have no problem with
arranging a meeting a meeting with the university
president and a satisfactory mutually agreed solution
be arranged. I can always take my business
elsewhere. I already had a good paying job and a family,
Most the kids in class with me were still dependent on mom and dad.
Plus I had dealt with military BS for over 5 years.
And daily dealt with Aerospace BS(I was a Boeing employee).

I graduated with a 3.5 GPA in 1990.


8 posted on 01/08/2025 1:10:35 PM PST by rellic (no such thing as a moderate Moslem or Democrat )
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To: Williams

I missed that one.

One of the times I was censored by their thought police over a post I made. That is how COVID 19 was remarkably similar to virus being studied at nearby bio-weapons labs. I sent the factcheckers a question: “i have a science degree and 32 years of professional experience . Please tell me what qualifies you to temp. ban me simply because I make a suggestion, what is your experience and or education?”.

They would not reply.


9 posted on 01/08/2025 1:11:05 PM PST by Phoenix8
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To: jroehl

Totally agree.


10 posted on 01/08/2025 1:12:50 PM PST by Churchillspirit (Pray for President Trump)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Never did, don’t plan on it either. Mrs rktman, still on it. 😂😂😂👍


11 posted on 01/08/2025 1:25:29 PM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within ? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉! 🇮🇱👍!)
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To: rellic

I am pleased to hear there are still some who have not bowed the knee to Baal.


12 posted on 01/08/2025 1:35:35 PM PST by Migraine
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Are they planning on restoring accounts of people they shut down permanently without notice ?
Never mention the Hillary Clinton Kill List on Facebook, especially with the names of the victims.
They will send you a barrage of Suicide prevention information in an effort to make you look troubled !


13 posted on 01/08/2025 1:42:08 PM PST by cquiggy (Ck)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Yeah, well a lot of their so called fact checking is done by AI. When you post a meme and it gets banned in 30 seconds that is not a person. I have had multiple posts banned while in the process of up loading. They never made it there.

Why does no one seem to mention that?

Zuker is a Stalinist.


14 posted on 01/08/2025 2:54:32 PM PST by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s, you weren't really there)
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To: rktman

Never had and never will have any FAKEBOOK, TWEETER, METAFARCE or any of that other crap.

My life belongs to me, my wife, and my kids.
The rest of the world doesn’t need to know what I am doing or why I am doing it, PERIOD!

It is my opinion that all this “social media” is an emotional addiction that people would be better off without.


15 posted on 01/08/2025 3:03:23 PM PST by 5th MEB (1)
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To: 5th MEB

Oh, THEY know who we are. 😂👍


16 posted on 01/08/2025 3:10:49 PM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within ? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉! 🇮🇱👍!)
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