Facebook Vice President Nick Clegg admitted that the tech giant’s “fact-checkers” employed to weed out “fake news” from the platform could be biased.
Facebook reportedly uses 80 different organizations across the world to flag misinformation.
The Daily Mail obtained minutes from a meeting between Clegg and a Brussels power-breaker where the former revealed he questions the fact-checkers ability to make an impartial decision on questionable content.
The document shows that Clegg and Vera Jourova, the vice-president of the European Commission, also discussed how Facebook targeted disinformation during the 2020 US Presidential election.
Interestingly, the minutes add: “He [Mr Clegg] also stressed that independent fact-checkers are not necessarily objective because they have their own agenda.”
Former Cabinet Minister David Jones told The Daily Mail that Clegg’s comments are “deeply worrying.”
“The admission completely destroys the credibility of Facebook’s own procedures. It offers news organisations no right of appeal when it censors them, even though it may have acted on the advice of fact-checkers who are motivated by ‘their own agenda’,” he added.
Facebook, however, says Clegg never said anything about bias.
“Nick never suggested there is bias in our fact-checking programme,” a spokesperson said. “He did describe that one benefit of having a range of independent fact-checking partners is the variety of specialisms in different countries and issue areas that they bring.”
Facebook has acted as an arbiter of truth for COVID-related information since the pandemic began, restricting content that questioned the CDC’s official narrative..
Congressman Roger Marshall M.D. (R-KS), who is also a licensed physician, was previously censored by Facebook for discussing mortality data the CDC provided.
“A Facebook post published on Sunday afternoon by U.S. Congressman Roger Marshall, M.D. discussing updated COVID-19 death data released by the CDC was removed Monday night by Facebook without notice or explanation,” KNSS reported at the time. Marshall later said that his earlier post had “discussed the new data published by the CDC showing that only 6% of deaths were due solely to COVID-19, while the remaining 94% of deaths had two or more underlying health conditions.”
Marshall slammed Facebook’s censorship, saying, “Social media companies should not be allowed to censor science that they disagree with.” He added that content-flagging was “corporate censorship, pure and simple.”
“As a physician, I believe in discussing all data, options, and research with my patients,” he concluded. “This was data published by the CDC, but unfortunately did not fit the narrative that the left and the liberal media want us to believe. We cannot allow social media companies to determine what we do and not learn about this virus. Americans deserve to be informed.”
Conservatism is under attack. Contact Facebook headquarters at 1-650-308-7300 and demand that Big Tech hold the left accountable for their own policies. If you have noticed bias at Facebook, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
What a shocker !
Really a shame that what everybody with a functioning brain that refuses to even entertain the use of FB has known from the very beginning they now admit is true. Suckerberg & company are really stupid and should be shut down for privacy and First Amendment violations.
Fast-checkers have been biased from the beginning. Kicking PRESIDENT TRUMP off is a good example. Blaming the “insurrection” on him is just plain stupid and the “big tech” has gotten too big for their britches.
The only way to get to these stooges is to remove FB for your technology devices. Unfortunately, most people are addicted to these platforms.
What we really need are some significant class action law suits against FB. I have a home based business that ran mostly on FB, when they canceled my account (no notice, no warning, and no appeal) they put me out of business… I doubt I was the only conservative that was eliminated from FB and has suffered great financial harm…. lets find an attorney and go after them! How about all the people that lost businesses because everything was shuttered all last year due to a false narrative, and/or the people that had friends/family die from the virus that could have been saved if FB didn’t censor everything about alternate cures. Hundreds of thousands of people died, and this country suffered incredible financial harm because FB decided to support a narrative that would help get Trump out of office.
Monopolies have long been illegal in this county. Steel companies, Rail Roads, and other big industry have been on the wrong end of anti-trust litigation. It is time that technology be nailed to the wall similarly.
Ya kiddin me!! Facebook is biased?? when did ya figure that out???
The admission itself is biased.
The “fact checkers” not only can be biased, but are REQUIRED to be biased.
Could be? There is no doubt that they were designed to be biased.
Over 3 1/2 years ago I sent a message to faceless book about their foreign sensors. I just said that if they did not like the truth they would sensor it.
They sent an email back saying I was banned for 90 days. I sent one back telling them to shove it up their a$$es and I have not been on it since.
I have removed faceless book from everything.