{"id":1542256,"date":"2022-07-07T05:04:29","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T09:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1542256"},"modified":"2022-07-07T05:04:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T09:04:31","slug":"how-facebook-crushes-conservative-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-facebook-crushes-conservative-news\/","title":{"rendered":"How Facebook Crushes Conservative News"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-facebook-crushes-conservative-news%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1542256&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/\">Media<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">A former Facebook engineer details how the company suppressed a Free Beacon report on the Biden administration&#8217;s plan to fund the distribution of crack pipes to drug addicts\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/ian-haworth\/\" title=\"Posts by Ian Haworth\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Ian Haworth<\/a> \u2022 July 7, 2022 5:00 am<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>It took just hours after a <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/biden-admin-to-fund-crack-pipe-distribution-to-advance-racial-equity\/\">report<\/a> on a Biden administration plan to distribute crack pipes to drug addicts at taxpayer expense for the Facebook fact-checkers to mobilize.<\/p>\n<p>In a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/leadstories.com\/hoax-alert\/2022\/02\/fact-check-biden-administration-is-not-funding-crack-pipes-heroin-for-drug-use.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fact check<\/a>&#8221; titled &#8220;Biden Administration Is NOT Funding \u2018Crack Pipes, Heroin&#8217; For Drug Use,&#8221; <em>Lead Stories<\/em>\u2014a prominent member of Facebook&#8217;s third-party fact-checking program\u2014concluded the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> report was &#8220;not true.&#8221; <em>Lead Stories<\/em> based its determination on Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra&#8217;s declaration,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/about\/news\/2022\/02\/09\/statement-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-and-ondcp-director-rahul-gupta.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">made days after the report elicited considerable blowback<\/a>, that as <em>Lead Stories<\/em> phrased it, &#8220;none of the federal funds for harm reduction programs for drug addicts can be used to provide crack pipes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While a description of the HHS grants stated that the grantees would be required to buy materials like safe smoking kits and supplies to \u2018enhance harm reduction efforts,&#8217; such kits and supplies are just a few of the many materials that grantees can utilize,&#8221; <em>Lead Stories<\/em> added. The fact-checking system at Facebook, which I saw first hand during my time as a software engineer on Facebook&#8217;s &#8220;Misinformation&#8221; fact-checking team between 2019 and 2021, hands monumental power to supposedly nonpartisan fact-checking organizations to quash legitimate news.<\/p>\n<p>According to the original <em>Free Beacon<\/em>\u00a0report, President Joe Biden&#8217;s Department of Health and Human Services planned to implement a $30 million grant program that included the distribution of &#8220;safe smoking kits&#8221; to drug addicts. A spokesman for the administration told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> that these &#8220;safe smoking kits&#8221; would\u2014like many other similar existing kits across the nation\u2014include pipes for the use of &#8220;any illicit substance.&#8221; Another Facebook fact-checker, <em>AFP Fact Check<\/em>, also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/factcheck.afp.com\/doc.afp.com.9Z48LU?fbclid=IwAR10Bj9qP4F_mlF0YhEi98ZDEHkXXsT2wtyWCE75IjB63Wl1YbwipKROT_w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">concluded<\/a>\u00a0the &#8220;U.S. grant program is not funding crack pipes for addicts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As a result of this wave of fact-checking activity, Facebook\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FreeBeacon\/posts\/pfbid017XL4ZfQjscQmvM3QHxJt6iniubhJPDadT32V7AuRVi61euKTQAhkoXFEywBYWCsl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">posts<\/a> linking to the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> report were tagged as &#8220;Partly False,&#8221; thereby &#8220;significantly&#8221; reducing the &#8220;content&#8217;s distribution so that fewer people see it,&#8221; according to Facebook&#8217;s own fact-checking\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/formedia\/blog\/third-party-fact-checking-how-it-works\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Free Beacon<\/em> tried to fight the decision, but complaints fell on deaf ears. <em>Lead Stories<\/em> editor in chief Alan Duke insisted he had no responsibility to contact the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> before making a determination, which relied exclusively on the word of Biden administration officials. That&#8217;s right: <em>Lead Stories<\/em> diminished the story&#8217;s distribution on Facebook based on the word of Biden administration officials whose policies were suddenly under scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Your fact check on <em>Lead Stories<\/em> led to our highly trafficked piece being removed from Facebook. Is there a reason you didn&#8217;t bother reaching out to our reporter or anybody at the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>?&#8221; the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>\u2018s executive editor, Brent Scher, asked Duke.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Your article may be \u2018highly trafficked&#8217; but it is also highly false,&#8221; Duke, a former CNN reporter, responded. &#8220;Please let us know when you have updated it with the correct information, as shared in our article.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Duke, whose\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlanDukeNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter profile<\/a> describes him as a &#8220;Facebook fact-checker,&#8221; added that his duties required him only to contact government spokesmen\u2014not the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, by &#8220;correct information,&#8221; <em>Lead Stories<\/em> meant retroactive statements from government officials, including Sarah Lovenheim, an assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, who called the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> report &#8220;blatant misinformation,&#8221; as well as the claims of another HHS spokesman who called the piece &#8220;misleading and misinformed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>The crack pipe brouhaha raises a central question: Why is <em>Lead Stories<\/em> qualified to make these determinations in the first place, particularly when it and other fact-checking organizations routinely ignore the undeniable fact that politicians lie\u2014especially when they&#8217;ve been caught? Moreover, why did <em>Lead Stories<\/em> ignore the fact that both its fact check and the original <em>Free Beacon<\/em> report effectively relied on the same source, especially when we consider that the subsequent political fallout could impact the Biden administration&#8217;s public position?<\/p>\n<p>Silicon Valley uses fact-checking organizations to shield itself from responsibility and wash its hands of political pressures to focus on financial objectives. Meanwhile, organizations like <em>Lead Stories<\/em> can pursue their financial <em>and<\/em> ideological hobby horses. Indeed, <em>Lead Stories<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/leadstories.com\/about.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">says<\/a>\u00a0the &#8220;bulk of our revenue originated from our work done as part of Facebook&#8217;s Third-Party Fact Checking Partnership&#8221; in 2021, through its self-described focus on &#8220;trending stories,&#8221; adding that &#8220;Facebook pays us to perform this service for them but they have no say or influence over what we fact-check or what our conclusions are, nor do they want to.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fact-checking organizations enjoy independence regarding &#8220;what [they] fact-check or what [their] conclusions are,&#8221; but that independence is dangerous when we consider their partisanship and the enormous power Silicon Valley has handed them.<\/p>\n<p>The protective cycle of evasion makes recourse impossible. When the fact-checker doesn&#8217;t care, and the Big Tech platform doesn&#8217;t want to know, there is nowhere else to turn. The fact-checkers know this, allowing them to profit from the fact-checking system while using their relationships with Big Tech to exert control over the political narrative. But it is also worth noting how futile their efforts are: The\u00a0<em>Free Beacon<\/em> report on crack pipes spread everywhere despite the best efforts of the Facebook hall monitors.<\/p>\n<p>That said, as long as Facebook is able to evade responsibility, there is no reason to believe that a handful of left-wing journalists drunk on a little power will exercise it responsibly\u2014or willingly surrender it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ian Haworth is a former Facebook engineer turned conservative commentator. Follow him on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/ighaworth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>, and subscribe to his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ianhaworth.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Substack<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media A former Facebook engineer details how the company suppressed a Free Beacon report on the Biden administration&#8217;s plan to fund the distribution of crack pipes to drug addicts\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":1894373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1542256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1542256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1894373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1542256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1542256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}