© Global Look / Joel Goodman
Two of Facebook's US "fact-checkers" tasked with keeping fake news from proliferating have chosen to quit doing the job for the social media giant while issuing cryptic statements concerning their continuing relationship.
Snopes and the Associated Press have both ended their fact-checking partnerships with Facebook, releasing carefully-worded statements that
leave open the possibility of future collaboration while making it clear the checking of facts will fall to whoever is left - Politifact, FactCheck.org, AFP, and the Atlantic Council, which lurks in the background, keeping the platform safe for democracy.Snopes, the rumor oracle that became famous for settling the truth of urban legends, issued a
statement announcing it had "elected not to renew [its] partnership" with Facebook, citing the costs and "ramifications" of offering third-party fact-checking while stressing it hopes to "discuss other approaches to combating misinformation."
"Forgoing an economic opportunity is not a decision that we or any other journalistic enterprise can take lightly," Snopes admits. Like many in the mainstream media these days, the site is adorned with fundraising banners and claims to be cash-strapped. The company received $100,000 from Facebook for its fact-checking services last year, a sum founder David Mikkelson stressed it did not ask for. Regarding the split, Mikkelson
told TechCrunch that the partnership "wasn't working well for us as an organization,"
citing a lack of data on the effectiveness of the fact-checking program.
Comment: Clearly Rep. Ilhan Omar is part of the hysterical left in the US and her views are infected by that, as is evidenced by her belief that 'systematic alienation' is responsible for the violence of the Islamic State. However, her criticisms of Israel's ethnic cleansing and US foreign policy, as we see throughout this article, are pretty close to the truth.
And that's the problem. Americans have spent decades cherry-picking data to support their worldviews and, when the other side provides uncomfortable information, it's become ever easier to resort to accusations of 'racism,' 'anti-Semitism' or some other moralism to categorically dismiss that unwanted piece of data. Clearly this disease of the mind is far more advanced in the Left today since most of their 'cherished beliefs' were postmodern frauds to begin with. But we see evidence of it on the Right whenever someone criticizes Israel.
Also see: Zionism is the Right's 'Identity Politics'