Interesting.
Recently I shared this info-graphic on Facebook:
I have received a message from Facebook that this has now been classed as fake news and shares of it across Facebook will be downgraded:
Looking at the fact-check (see here), it’s actually quite thorough.
But the info-graphic has been classed as fake news because the independent fact checker decided that the blue passports announced by the UK government have not yet been actually issued:
And it’s classed as fake news also because I pointed out that MPs have received two pay rises since the Brexit vote, when in fact it’s been three!
The rest it decided was accurate.
While slightly annoyed by the stupidity applied to my own anti-Brexit, lefty posts when it came to fact-checking, I wasn’t initially unhappy, because I was looking forward to having fun reading the fact-checks on the Sun, Express and the Mail under the fact-checking organisation’s immigration section.
But I was amazed to see, according to the fact checker’s website, there haven’t been any fake news stories from the Sun, Mail or Express (see here) on immigration.
Or on Brexit. Or Jeremy Corbyn. Or anything.
We all know of course, in reality there have been plenty:
How the press lied about the little girl staying with Muslim foster parents.
Tory MP caught red-handed sharing pro-Brexit fake news on social media
See 20 years of FAKE NEWS about EU by UK press. Vote for your ‘favourite’ here:
More fake news from mainstream journalists trying to influence Brexit
Anger after The Sun photoshops out WW2 veteran from Remembrance Sunday service
So while I’m glad that social media companies such as Facebook are trying to clamp down on fake news, it’s disheartening to discover neither the independent fact-checker nor Facebook are applying such rigorous fact-checking to the Sun, the Express, the Daily Mail or other mainstream press – who continue to publish fake news on Facebook and other social media – especially on the subjects of immigration, Jeremy Corbyn and the EU – with impunity.
And remember. This is also after Facebook allowed the Leave campaign and Cambridge Analytica to flood it with fake news.
One rule for the establishment propaganda writers, another rule for the plebs it seems …
Pingback: More fake news from mainstream journalists trying to influence Brexit | Pride's Purge
here’s what to expect with a No Deal Brexit – it’s not a pretty picture
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2019/08/26/faq-mr-no-deal-warning-ireland-and-scotland/
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I obviously received the same notification as you, and my thoughts were the same as yours, especially, when on further checking of this particular fact checker, they have been in existence for three years. Hmm?
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Excellent email / efforts Tom, simply brilliant. How did you calculate the 66 Billion as it seems higher than the research I did for the book I am writing, but it is obviously growing as we communicate? Many thanksChris Best regardsChris Bartram 07866 763 632
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Given the huge amount of fake news being put into the mainstream by the losers, it’s hardly surprising that eventually some of it will be removed especially such ridiculously biased posts such as the example.
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Cross out the two offending bits, change the “two” to a “three” on the pay rises line and republish it Tom 🙂
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