Radio legend Mark Levin is the latest victim of Facebook’s censorship campaign, which they run through the Trojan Horse of “fact checking.”
After a number of “fact checks,” Facebook punished Levin’s account, throttling traffic to his page by double digits.
Facebook has now placed severe restrictions on my Facebook page on the eve before the election based on an extremely dishonest Politifact review of my link to an accurate story. I will not be intimidated or threatened by Facebook. You can also find my posts on Twitter and Parler pic.twitter.com/JFjdpz990c
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 2, 2020
We’ve experienced similar problems with Facebook in the past, where objectively true claims we posted were rated false, or labeled misleading, damaging our traffic through their platform in the process. A review of a handful of Levin’s offending posts tell the same story in his case.
Here’s just a sampling of posts recently rated false.
Facebook: Partly False Information Found on Mark Levin October 31 2020
Levin posted on October 31 an article from the Right Scoop headlined “‘America is dead’ – Joe Biden actually said this at his Iowa rally.”
To justify giving Levin a warning for the post, Facebook attached a PolitiFact article giving context that Biden was actually talking about the coronavirus death toll. This would be much needed context… if it wasn’t the case that the “Right Scoop” article already mentioned this exact context in their reporting. In fact, the video of the Biden quote in the Right Scoop article is captioned “Biden: America is dead because of COVID-19.”
In other words, Facebook “fact checked” a headline they didn’t like, even though their fact check makes the exact same clarification as the article they didn’t like.
Facebook: Partly False Information Found on Mark Levin September 28 2020
Levin shared an article from the Daily Caller titled “Wildfires Will Become Worse Thanks To Decades-Old Liberal Policies, Says Fire Expert Who Predicted Uptick In Blazes.”
The article was flagged for “oversimplifying drivers of wildfires and downplays role of climate change,” and readers were directed to a “fact check” by an organization called Climate Feedback.
Journalist John Stossel recently had a video of his on the role of poor management of forests in recent wildfires flagged, with viewers being directed to the same “Climate Feedback” for “the truth.” When Stossel contacted Climate Feedback, he found that the people who Facebook used to “fact check” him never actually saw his video, and most people who worked there agreed with him.
In other words, Facebook just decided to find an article they thought supported their position and claimed that it was a “fact check” of a video they didn’t bother to interact with the claims of.
Facebook: Partly False Information Found on Mark Levin on September 29 2020
Levin shared a tweet from The Federalist’s Sean Davis that read: “BREAKING: On July 26, 2016, U.S. intel authorities learned that Russian intel knew of Hillary Clinton’s plans to cook up a scandal alleging that Trump was working with Russia. Obama was personally briefed on Russia’s knowledge of Clinton’s plans.”
The claim was based on a letter from Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. In that letter Ratcliffe notes that the information could be Russian disinformation, and that the claims regarding Hillary Clinton are alleged.
And Lead Stories’ fact check basically amounts to acknowledging that the information could be Russian disinformation without mentioning that months later, no evidence has emerged that it is. Their only source they cite in rebutting the allegations Ratcliffe lays out is Rachel Cohen, a communications director for Democrat Senator Mark Warner who said in a tweet that the letter is Russian disinformation.
Is there anything damaging to Democrats that isn’t branded “Russian disinformation” nowadays?
Ratcliffe later would issue a statement confirming that the information he provided was not Russian disinformation, but apparently Lead Stories weighs the credibility of a tweet from some staffer higher than the Director of National Intelligence.
The only error made here was Sean Davis not framing the allegations as “alleged” when they were reported, but the claim that they’re Russian misinformation is bogus. Lead Stories is still running with their debunked talking point, and it’s being used to “fact check” reality.
Facebook: Partly False Information Found on Mark Levin on August 7 2020
Mark shared a Breitbart article titled “Facebook, Google/YouTube, Twitter Censor Viral Video of Doctors’ Capitol Hill Coronavirus Press Conference.”
The focus of the article is that the press conference was censored by social media, and in response, Facebook decided to censor the post. Why? Because there’s “Still no evidence that hydroxychloroquine can cure or prevent COVID-19” they say, linking to an article from a website called Health Feedback. While those speaking at the press conference did tout the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, the Breitbart article Levin shared was about the press conference getting censored… which Facebook responded to by censoring it.
Whether or not hydroxychloroquine actually works is irrelevant to the article, but there are studies that do show positive effects. A study from the Henry Ford Health System found that in an analysis of 2,541 patients, 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died, compared to 26.4% not treated with hydroxychloroquine. And of note, two critical studies of the drug from the Lancet and New England Journal of Health were retracted in June.
None of this is to say that the drug does work, as there are plenty of studies showing the exact opposite. The point is that the science on it is hardly settled, yet Facebook’s fact checkers pretend it is – and for the purpose of “fact checking” an article that isn’t actually about hydroxychloroquine. The purpose of the article was that social media was simply censoring people for talking about hydroxychloroquine – and now we know that Facebook will censor people talking about Facebook censoring people talking about hydroxychloroquine. Ain’t that a mouthful?
It sure looks like we need a new generation of fact checkers – to fact check the current generation of fact checkers.
