In Court, Facebook Admits 'Fact Checks' Are Pure Opinion

In Court, Facebook Admits 'Fact Checks' Are Pure OpinionShow more

Jan. 1, 2022

"I’ve reported that Facebook censored me. Now I’ve learned that Facebook also censors respected science writers John Tierney, Michael Shellenberger and Bjorn Lomborg.” ~John Stossel

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

* "Fact checks" are nothing but a biased censoring mechanism, and now we have proof of this fact, thanks to a lawsuit brought against Facebook by journalist John Stossel

* In court documents, Facebook admits that fact checks are "statements of opinion" and not factual assertions

* Facebook recently censored a whistleblower report published by The British Medical Journal (BMJ), one of the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, variably labeling the article as "False," "Partly false" or "Missing context." Some users reported they could not share the article at all

* The fact check inaccurately referred to The BMJ as a "news blog," failed to specify any assertions of fact that The BMJ article got wrong, and published the fact check under a URL containing the phrase "hoax-alert"

* The BMJ calls the fact check "inaccurate, incompetent and irresponsible." In an open letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, The BMJ urges Zuckerberg to "act swiftly" to correct the erroneous fact check, review the processes that allowed it to occur in the first place, and "generally to reconsider your investment in and approach to fact checking overall"

We've long suspected that fact checking organizations are nothing but a biased censoring mechanism more interested in manipulating opinion than establishing actual facts, but now we have absolute proof, thanks to a lawsuit brought against Facebook by journalist John Stossel.

In 2020, a Facebook fact checker called Science Feedback slapped "False" and "Lacking context" labels on two videos posted by Stossel. The videos featured Stossel's interviews with experts who discussed the negligible role of climate change in the 2020 California forest fires. While they did not deny climate change is real, they proposed there were other, likely more contributing factors, such as poor forest management.

Why were his videos flagged as misinformation? According to Facebook fact checkers, Stossel was "misleading" people when he claimed that "forest fires are caused by poor forest management, not climate change." But according to Stossel, he never actually made that claim.

According to Stossel, the labels damaged his reputation as an investigative journalist and resulted in a loss of followers. Interestingly, when Stossel contacted Science Feedback about its fact checks, two reviewers agreed to be interviewed. With regard to the first video that got flagged, they admitted they'd never even watched it. In the case of the second video, a reviewer explained that they "didn't like [his] tone." As noted by The New York Post:

"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."

"The problem is the omission of contextual information rather than specific 'facts' being wrong," the fact checker told Stossel, who says:

"What? It's fine if people don't like my tone. But Facebook declares my post 'partly false,' a term it defines on its website as including 'factual inaccuracies.' My video does not contain factual inaccuracies ... I want Facebook to learn that censorship — especially sloppy, malicious censorship, censorship without any meaningful appeal process — is NOT the way to go. The world needs more freedom to discuss things, not less."

Facebook Claims Fact Checks Are 'Protected Opinion'

So, Stossel sued for defamation, and this is where it gets good, because to defend Facebook, its lawyers had to at least temporarily resort to telling the truth. In their legal brief, they argue that fact checks are protected under the First Amendment because they are OPINIONS, not assertions of facts! Commenting on the case, climate change blogger Anthony Watts writes:

"Facebook just blew the 'fact check' claim right out of the water in court. In its response to Stossel's defamation claim, Facebook responds on Page 2, Line 8 in the court document that Facebook cannot be sued for defamation (which is making a false and harmful assertion) because its 'fact checks' are mere statements of opinion rather than factual assertions.

Opinions are not subject to defamation claims, while false assertions of fact can be subject to defamation ... So, in a court of law, in a legal filing, Facebook admits that its 'fact checks' are not really 'fact' checks at all, but merely 'opinion assertions.'

This strikes me as public relations disaster, and possibly a looming legal disaster for Facebook, PolitiFact, Climate Feedback and other left-leaning entities that engage in biased 'fact checking.'

Such 'fact checks' are now shown to be simply an agenda to suppress free speech and the open discussion of science by disguising liberal media activism as something supposedly factual, noble, neutral, trustworthy, and based on science. It is none of those."

Facebook Censors The British Medical Journal

Stossel is far from alone in being censored these days. In the video above, he points out other noteworthy experts who have been censored for their opinions and educated stances, such as environmentalist Michael Shellenberger, once hailed by Time Magazine as a "hero of the environment," statistician and environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg, once declared "one of the most influential people of the 21st century," and science writer John Tierney.

"As Facebook has now admitted in court, these so-called fact checks are nothing more than a declaration of preferred opinion. They're statements of approved narrative. They have nothing to do with the verification of facts."

Of course, I am no stranger to censorship either, having been falsely labeled as one of the "biggest misinformation agents" on the entire internet when it comes to the COVID jab. In these times of Orwellian Doublespeak, I consider this one of most significant achievements I have ever achieved.

Think about it for a moment. The entire mainstream media has agreed that I am the most influential spreader of the truth about COVID on the internet. Even my friend and major freedom fighter, Bobby Kennedy, was only No. 2. I couldn't be more delighted with their award. I might even have it inscribed on my tombstone.

Most recently, Facebook even censored The British Medical Journal (BMJ) over an article that highlighted potential problems with Pfizer's COVID jab trial, and The BMJ is one of the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world!

In early November 2021, The BMJ published a whistleblower report6 that claimed there were serious data integrity issues in the Pfizer COVID jab trial. The article was censored by Facebook and labeled variably as either "False," "Partly false" or "Missing context." Some users reported the article could not be shared at all.

The Facebook fact check of The BMJ article was done by Lead Stories, a Facebook contractor. The headline of its "fact check" rebuttal read: "Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying and Ignored Reports of Flaws in Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine Trials."

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/01/01/fact-checkers-misinformation.aspx

Don't miss a single video from Stossel TV. Sign up here: https://www.johnstossel.com/#subscribe