Facebook draws liberal ire for hiring conservative ‘fact-checkers’ for once
A fact-checking spinoff of the conservative website Daily Caller has partnered up with Facebook to police fake news, and mainstream media are outraged.
The social media behemoth has added Daily Caller’s CheckYourFact.com to its list of US media partners this week, sparking outrage among the mainstream (and politically rather differently aligned) media outlets, who argued that Daily Caller has published fake news, harbors “white supremacists” and was founded by Tucker Carlson of Fox News.
Facebook joining forces with the Daily Caller for a fact-checking mission https://t.co/yPFrsBzZM6pic.twitter.com/aEGLjQLwgv
— Splinter (@splinter_news) April 18, 2019
Facebook brings in rightwing news site the "Daily Caller" to factcheck articles https://t.co/2MYeV28LWv
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 18, 2019
Facebook’s new fact checkers, everyone.https://t.co/uNMBPVtIbM
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) April 18, 2019
Carlson co-founded the Daily Caller in 2010, but stepped down as editor-in-chief in November 2016, after getting a contract with Fox to host ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’
What could go wrong with using misogynistic, white nationalist to check your facts? Facebook teams with rightwing Daily Caller in factchecking program https://t.co/iTIhd9hmsN#Facebook#RussianAsset#MarkZuckerberg
— cowboytexas🇺🇸🌊 (@cowboytexas) April 18, 2019
This is how fact checking is supposed to work, right?Facebook: "This article kind of looks like right-wing bullshit. Fact check, please?"Right-Wing Bullshit Website: "Nope, it's totally legit. 100% true facts."https://t.co/8vBsDwAHfk
— Martin Ralya (@MartinRalya) April 18, 2019
The Right keeps whining about conservative bias that doesn't exist because tech companies keep caving. https://t.co/vTHJO1CcZQ
— Melissa Ryan (@MelissaRyan) April 18, 2019
One of the many measures the California-based corporation rolled out under pressure from Congress and the media, Facebook’s fact-checking program has had a rocky history. Snopes.com bowed out of the partnership in February, as its vice president Vinny Green endorsed the Orwellian-style NewsGuard app as the future of fact-checking.
Also on rt.com AP & Snopes quit ‘fact-checking’ for Facebook as NewsGuard’s blacklist model pushes aheadFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has faced harsh criticisms from nearly every quarter about his methods of policing information on the social network, with some saying he hasn’t gone far enough and others accusing him of outright censorship.
Also on rt.com Unfriended: Facebook under fire from media ‘baying for blood’There has been far less scrutiny of Facebook’s other partners-in-arms, such as the pro-NATO think tank The Atlantic Council, or the Southern Poverty Law Center, a self-proclaimed authority on “hate groups.”
The SPLC remains on a list of “external experts and organizations” that Facebook works with “to inform our hate speech policies,” even after paying a hefty settlement to a Muslim reformer they’d maligned, and recently purging its founder and top leadership, due to unspecified scandals.
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