Facebook steps up 'false news' crackdown with tips for spotting and reporting bogus stories

Independent fact checkers like Politifact, who rated John Kerry's statement that they got all the chemical weapons out of Syria a "mostly true"? Yeah, so reliable. 

What happens when groups report true news as false and fact checker agree with that false decision? Any way to refute or reverse bad judgements?

And so it begins.  The era of censorship. It will be accomplished in incremental steps where "incorrect" information as determined by the "correct" people first just label the information, at some point progressing to deleting it,  then banning the user, and then "legal" action, which will range from civil to criminal sanctions.  

Putting up with silly, offensive and even lies is an vital part of a true freedom of speech. Yes, Facebook is a private entity and the Bill of Rights does not apply to them so they can censor in any way they want, and yes there are always limits to the First Amendment protections, libel/slander laws, etc, but because of the reach and expanse of Facebook , and the likelihood that this will be emulated elsewhere, this is an ominous development.   

Even with the best of intentions, this is unworkable.  Take the recent controversies over the alleged spying by the Obama administration on the Trump campaign team, and the alleged involvement of the Russians with Trump staff.  When someone posts a story, comment, etc., that "Obama spied on Trump" or "The Russians teamed up with Trump staffer" who is the oracle that gets to decide if either, neither or both or false/true?   Now carry that out a thousand times every day with every story, report, etc. 

Indeed, the beginning of a dark era if this isn't fought by civil libertarians left and right.

thewhitefalcon said:

Independent fact checkers like Politifact, who rated John Kerry's statement that they got all the chemical weapons out of Syria a "mostly true"? Yeah, so reliable. 

1) It's ironic that you complain about reliable facts and then fail to post a single source to back up your claims. At least your man Trump will say things like "people are saying" and "I'm hearing" when he makes unsubstantiated claims.

2) If you had a bare minimum of research you would see that Politifact used to have a "Mostly True" rating for Kerry's 2014 statement, "We struck a deal where we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out," after citing a statement from director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ahmet Üzümcü, who stated, "The last of the remaining chemicals identified for removal from Syria were loaded this afternoon aboard the Danish ship Ark Futura." Despite those comments, Politifact still only gave it a "Mostly True" rating because there were still discrepancies between how many chemical weapons Syria claimed to have and how many outside observers claimed the country had. It was only 3 years later—which is why you bring it up now—that Politifact removed the statement and stated, "we don't know key details about the reported chemical attack in Syria on April 4, 2017, but it raises two clear possibilities: Either Syria never fully complied with its 2013 promise to reveal all of its chemical weapons; or it did, but then converted otherwise non-lethal chemicals to military uses. One way or another, subsequent events have proved Kerry wrong," Funny how you left out Politifact's statement.

3) Do you understand how facts work or are you purposely being obtuse to further a political agenda (which I hope you aren't since that's going to get this thread locked down). I'll make it simple by showing you in video in the form of a comedy gameshow…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efJ4VOnCG6k

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life_of_knowledge

spacekid said:

What happens when groups report true news as false and fact checker agree with that false decision? Any way to refute or reverse bad judgements?

If it's the masses v the educated then the masses are going to win every time, but that's the very reason why FB, Twitter, Apple, and many other others are having to fact check sources.