Facebook finally admitted the truth: The “fact checks” that social media use to police what Americans read and watch are just “opinion.”
That’s thanks to a lawsuit brought by celebrated journalist John Stossel, which has exposed the left’s supposed battle against “misinformation” as a farce.
Stossel posted a pair of videos that touched the third rail of liberal politics — climate change. Neither questioned whether climate change is real, but each talked about other issues, namely forest management and using technology to adapt. Yet the third party that Facebook contracts to review these pieces, Science Feedback, flagged them as “false,” or our favorite, “lacking context.”
Why? Science Feedback didn’t like Stossel’s “tone.” That is, you can’t write anything about climate change unless you say it’s the worst disaster in the history of humanity and we must spend trillions to fight it.
For this, Facebook bans or minimizes Stossel’s reporting, depriving him of readers and revenue.
Then, when sued, Facebook throws up its hands and says “not our problem!” His real beef is with Science Feedback, you see; we wash our hands of it.
As for that “fact check” label we slapped on your piece? In Facebook’s response to Stossel, it argues, well, that’s protected opinion under the First Amendment.
The Post has faced this same gauntlet too many times. In February 2020, we published a column by Steven W. Mosher asking if COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Lab. This was labeled “false” by Facebook’s fact-checkers.
Of course, those supposed “independent” scientific reviewers relied on a group of experts who had a vested interest in dismissing that theory — including EcoHealth, which had funded the Wuhan lab.
When Twitter “fact checked” and blocked The Post’s stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop as “hacked materials,” what was the basis? Nothing. It wasn’t hacked; the company’s staff just wanted an excuse. Guess they didn’t like our tone.
In both these cases, our “fact checks” were lifted, but only after it no longer mattered.
The fact-check industry is funded by liberal moguls such as George Soros, government-funded nonprofits and the tech giants themselves. The checkers are not the unbiased arbiters of truth; they are useful distractions, groups Facebook can use to absolve itself of responsibility. Free speech be damned.