Why are leftist, third-party “fact-checkers” being allowed to control the news cycle and to unfairly impugn conservative publishers on Facebook?
In 2016, only 9 days before the election, and without warning, the popular conservative, 100 Percent Fed Up Facebook page received a notification from Facebook that their page with almost 1 million followers, (they now have almost 1.7 million followers) was UNPUBLISHED and would not be republished again.
After Breitbart News wrote about Facebook shutting down their page for no reason, it was reinstated. Facebook’s only explanation was that “This was a mistake.”
So far, Facebook has not shut down their popular conservative page before the election, but instead, they’ve been hit with multiple, untrue fact-check violations by leftist, third party “fact-checkers,” causing traffic to their page to be significantly reduced. Is it a coincidence that traffic on their pro-Trump, Facebook page has been reduced by approximately 90% only months before a critical election?
False news or misinformation violations by third-party fact-checkers hired by Facebook gives them the green-light to “demote,” or hide posts, including valuable information that is of interest to Americans about the upcoming election. Much of the news coservative sites publish is news that the Democrat Party’s mainstream media refuses to publish or that exposes the media for intentionally distorting the news to paint a picture that is favorable to the Democratic Party.
100 Percent Fed Up – On Oct. 11, 100 Percent Fed Up received two “false news” violations for the same article on Facebook.
The violations were from the far-left activist “fact-checking” group, Science Feedback, and were both related to the same article they wrote about a Chinese virologist who fled China out of fear for her safety after claiming that COVID-19 was manufactured in China’s only biosafety level-4 super laboratory. The laboratory where the Chinese virologist allegedly worked, is only a few miles away from the Wuhan wet market, where Chinese officials claim the coronavirus emanated. Human infectious diseases are researched in the lab, including the novel coronavirus.
The second paragraph in their article states: “While there is not yet clear evidence that the coronavirus originated in the lab where it was being studied, it has not been ruled out as the origin of the global COVID-19 pandemic,”
On their website, Science Feedback explained the reason for the fact-check violation: “The virus causing COVID-19 most likely evolved in natural wildlife populations before spreading to humans.
“Most likely?” When someone uses the term “most likely,” it denotes that they do not have factual evidence, but instead, have a strong suspicion that what they are saying is true. From the Merriam Webster dictionary: Definition of most likely: more likely than not: probably. It will most likely rain tomorrow.
False News and “Most likely” is not the same thing—and yet, when 100 Percent Fed Up appealed the violation with Science Feeback, the activist “fact-checker” hired by Facebook, denied their appeal, explaining that they would not remove the violation from their Facebook page, knowing full well that their violation would keep the conservative news they publish hidden from almost 1.7 million followers until after the election.
Here’s a screenshot of the “False information” violation on Facebook:
Science Feedback is also the same “fact-checking” organization that assessed an untold number of “false news” violations against anyone on Facebook who dared to share the video of the Frontline doctors that shared their own personal success stories about treating COVID positive patients with hydroxychloroquine.
On their website, Science Feedback asks for donations to keep their censorship machine in business.
A closer look at their top donors explains why 100 Percent Fed Up refers to them as a far-left activist group.
Science Feedback’s top individual donor is Eric Michelman.
Eric Michelman, a climate change activist, noted Democratic donor, and left-of-center activist. Influence Watch identifies Michelman as a computer scientist and angel investor who is also a left-of-center activist. Michelman is the creator of the Climate Change Education Project and the More Than Scientists organization and project.
Michelman is also a noted Democratic donor, donating money to the Presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Michelman is also a climate change activist, founding a climate change advocacy organization and publicly supporting a carbon tax.
Another top individual donor to Science Feedback is the Reiss Foundation.
Here are just a few of the anti-Trump, pro-Obama, trans rights, defund the police, and anti-law enforcement topics that are pushed on the Reiss Foundation website:
AntiTrump trans:
RT @calyouth: The proposed rule would allow shelters to ignore a trans person’s gender identity and house them according to their birth-assigned sex. #Trans #Homelessness https://t.co/cEpfqOrOBi
— Reissa Foundation (@ReissaFound) July 16, 2020
End school policing – trans tweet:
RT @TexasStandard: Black students are more likely to be arrested than students of any other race or ethnicity. https://t.co/0aT1Qm6WGt
— Reissa Foundation (@ReissaFound) July 16, 2020
Trans rights for kids:
RT @BlackOrgProject: Attention! OAKLAND HAS MADE HISTORY!! We eliminated an entire police department from the Oakland Public Schools ! We are so appreciative of all of the members who fought tirelessly for nearly a decade #PoliceFreeSchools pic.twitter.com/mwybD0dxNH
— Reissa Foundation (@ReissaFound) June 27, 2020
Support for Barack Obama:
RT @MayorAdler: I commit to @BarackObama’s and @MBKalliance pledge. Today and tomorrow’s meetings are an important first step for #ATXCouncil. https://t.co/B0I1KPxI2I pic.twitter.com/0JJANhN5MU pic.twitter.com/goID7pF9NY
— Reissa Foundation (@ReissaFound) June 5, 2020
From Climate Feedback: Three scientists analyzed the article and estimate its overall scientific credibility to be ‘low’.
A majority of reviewers tagged the article as Biased, Clickbait headline, Misleading.
Could their fact-check violation have anything to do with their top individual donor, Eric Michelman’s views on fires started by climate change that he posted on Facebook three years ago?
In their fact check claim article, Climate Feedback calls The Daily Caller out for not including information related to climate change:
In addition to forest management practices, human-caused climate change is a key driver of wildfire severity[2,5,6]. Specifically, climate change is causing warmer and drier conditions that increase the amount of dry vegetative fuel and total area burned during wildfires in the western US. As described in Abatzoglou and Williams (2016), “human-caused climate change caused over half of the documented increases in fuel aridity since the 1970s and doubled the cumulative forest fire area since 1984,” (see figure below)[5].
In other words, either agree with the science we provide for you, or you’re a liar.
Here’s the best part..the Daily Caller is also a fact-checker that has been hired by Facebook. It should be noted that The Daily Caller is the only fact-checking organization that is not left of center.
1.7 million Facebook users have “liked” the 100 Percent Fed Up Facebook page, indicating to Facebook that they would like to see their content in their newsfeed. Third-party “fact-checkers” hired by Facebook have been given the ability to decide whether or not Facebook users can see the content they choose. Facebook deciding which news you can and cannot see only weeks before the general election, should scare the hell out of every American that relies on Facebook for their news.