Facebook Fact-Checkers Freak Out, Call Emergency Meeting After Zuckerberg Pulls Funding
Far-Left fact-checking outfits are in full-blown panic mode after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that Facebook will drop its current fact-checking system, thereby cutting off funding for the partisan organizations.
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which includes signatories like PolitiFact and MediaWise, called an emergency meeting “specifically” over Zuckerberg’s announcement, a Business Insider report revealed.
“This program has been a major part of the global fact-checking community’s work for years,” IFCN’s director Angie Holan said. “People are upset because they saw themselves as partners in good standing with Meta, doing important work to make the platform more accurate and reliable.”
One PolitiFact employee said they “found out this morning at the same time as everyone else” about Zuckerberg dropping the partnership.
Zuckerberg said in a video posted Tuesday that Meta will no longer work with third-party fact-checkers, will end restrictions on topics like gender and immigration, and scale back filters that censored people for innocuous posts. The CEO added that Meta would focus on ensuring free expression, saying that the recent election seemed like a “cultural tipping point.”
Zuckerberg started the controversial partnership with left-wing fact-checking sites back in 2016, following the election of President Donald Trump. Conservative news sites, including The Daily Wire, quickly saw the suppression of their content for supposedly posting “misinformation.” However, information that was merely contrary to the mainstream narrative was often rated false or misleading.
The same with Daily Wire. We were literally the number one informational source on Facebook before the censorship regime decreased our reach by fully 90%. https://t.co/NMavyWtScT
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 7, 2025
Even satire from Right-leaning sites, such as The Babylon Bee, was rated “false” by these supposedly independent fact-checking outfits.
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Fact checking almost killed The Babylon Bee. So many of our jokes were rated “false” that the media began to characterize us as “traffickers in misinformation under the guise of satire.” Ironically, that was misinformation.
Fact checking safeguards narratives, not truth.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) January 7, 2025
Holan, though, shifted blame to Facebook for the actual censorship of posts. “It was never about censorship but about adding context to prevent false claims from going viral,” she said. Notably, Facebook made the decision to censor posts based on the fact-checking ratings.
Now that Meta — a leading funding source for IFCN members — is no longer using these fact-checkers, these operations will have to size-down, Holan indicated.
“The IFCN was here before Meta’s program, and we’ll be here after it,” she said. “We may look different in size and scope, but we’ll continue promoting the highest standards in fact-checking and connecting organizations that want to collaborate worldwide.”
“We’re here to help them figure out the best way forward,” Holan added.