{"id":17380,"date":"2020-03-04T13:14:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T13:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbsitsoftwaresolution.com\/blog\/facebook-fact-check-feud-erupts-over-trump-virus-hoax.html"},"modified":"2020-03-04T13:14:26","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T13:14:26","slug":"facebook-fact-check-feud-erupts-over-trump-virus-hoax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/facebook-fact-check-feud-erupts-over-trump-virus-hoax.html","title":{"rendered":"Facebook fact-check feud erupts over Trump virus \u2018hoax\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who fact-checks the fact-checkers? Did Trump call coronavirus the Democrats\u2019 \u201cnew hoax\u201d?<\/p>\n

Those are the big questions emerging from a controversial \u201cfalse\u201d label applied to Politico <\/a> and NBC News <\/a> stories by right-wing publisher The Daily Caller. Its Check Your Fact division is a Facebook <\/a> fact-checking partner, giving it the power to flag links on the social network as false, demoting their ranking in the News Feed as well as the visibility of the entire outlet that posted it.<\/p>\n

Critics railed<\/a> against Facebook\u2019s decision to admit The Daily Caller to the fact-checking program last April due to its history of publishing widely debunked articles. Now some believe their fears of politically biased fact-checks are coming true.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image via Judd Legum<\/a><\/p>\n

This week, Check Your Fact rated two stories as false. \u201cTrump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a \u2018hoax\u2019 \u201d from Politico, and \u201cTrump calls coronavirus Democrats\u2019 \u2018new hoax\u2019 \u201d from NBC News, as highlighted by Popular Information\u2019s Judd Legum<\/a>. The fact-check explanation states that \u201cTrump actually described complaints about his handling of the virus threat as a \u2018hoax\u2019. \u201d<\/p>\n

Trump had said at a rally<\/a> (emphasis ours):<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cNow the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus.<\/strong> You know that, right? Coronavirus. They\u2019re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs . . . They tried the impeachment hoax.<\/strong> That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they\u2019ve been doing it since you got in. It\u2019s all turning, they lost, it\u2019s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax. But you know, we did something that\u2019s been pretty amazing. We\u2019re 15 people [cases of coronavirus infection] in this massive country.<\/strong> And because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that . . . we\u2019ve lost nobody, and you wonder, the press is in hysteria mode.<\/strong>\u201c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s hard to tell exactly what Trump means here. He could be calling coronavirus a hoax, concerns about its severity a hoax or Democrats\u2019 criticism of his response a hoax. Reputable fact-checking institution Snopes<\/a> rated the claim that Trump called coronavirus a hoax as a mixture of true and false, noting, \u201cDespite creating some confusion with his remarks, Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image via Judd Legum<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps Politico and NBC News\u2019 headlines went too far, or perhaps the headlines fairly describe Trump\u2019s characterization of the situation.<\/p>\n

But the bigger concern is how Facebook <\/a> has designed its fact-checking system to prevent other fact-checking partners from auditing the decision of The Daily Caller.<\/p>\n

When asked about this, Facebook deflected responsibility, implying the audit process wouldn\u2019t be necessary because all of its fact-checking partners have been certified through the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network. This group publishes ethics guidelines that include an accuracy standard that requires checkers \u201cmaintain high standards of reporting, writing, and editing in order to produce work that is as error-free as possible.\u201d Checkers are also supposed to follow criteria for determining story accuracy, and can apply mid-point labels like \u201cPartly False\u201d or \u201cFalse Headline,\u201d which The Daily Caller didn\u2019t use here.<\/p>\n

Facebook tells me that because it doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s appropriate for it to be the arbiter of truth, it relies on the IFCN to set guidelines. It also noted that there\u2019s an appeals process where publishers can reach out directly to a fact-checker to dispute a rating. But when I followed up, Facebook clarified that publishers can only appeal the fact-checker that labeled them, and can\u2019t appeal to other fact-checkers for a second decision or audit of the original label.<\/p>\n

\"fb<\/p>\n

That leaves very little room for controversial or inaccurate labels to be rolled back. A fact-checker would have to be formally rejected by the IFCN for violating its guidelines to lose its status as a Facebook partner.<\/p>\n

If Facebook doesn\u2019t want to be the arbiter of truth, it should still establish a process for a quorum of its fact-checking partners to play that role. If consensus amongst other partners is that a label was inaccurate and a story might instead warrant a lesser label or none at all, that new decision should be applied. Otherwise, mistakes or malicious bias from a single fact-checker could suppress the work of entire news outlets and deprive the public of the truth.<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/nfrJ6ehC3nk\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who fact-checks the fact-checkers? Did Trump call coronavirus the Democrats\u2019 \u201cnew hoax\u201d? Those are the big questions emerging from a controversial \u201cfalse\u201d label applied to Politico and NBC News stories <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-17380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t