Recently a post of mine on Facebook had been tagged as ‘False Information’ and a link to some ‘fact-checking information’ had been added to the link on my page. This was the very second time this has happened and this morning I finally took some time to look at this.
To my utter surprise, NOTHING in the two posts I had linked was declared ‘false’ per se. Instead, a tremendously long page tried to explain a lot of things around the general subject of the post. Again, the information provided in the ‘fact-checking’ page exceeded the scope of the original post vastly without de facto invalidating the information originally provided.
Why then labeling the posts as ‘false information’?
Case 1: ‘an extra-governmental panel convened in Germany to verify the information around the corona virus’. The fact-checker’s verdict: this is false information because the government didn’t approve of the panel. What? Hello!!! The purpose of an extra-governmental panel is to act WITHOUT governmental approval. In short: this fact-checker used one of the most lame disinformation tactics on the planet.
Case 2: some studies referenced to by the WHO some time ago are indicating the limits and dangers of the use of masks indiscriminantly. The fact-checker didn’t argue with any of that. Why is it ‘false information’ even though the WHO endorsed it? Because, so says the fact-checker, it is not ‘current science’. There you have it! The information of some weeks ago on the WHO (and if I’m not mistaken, still there today) is outdated, so says the fact checker, And, further, the ‘majority of scientists’ are not upholding this view anymore (nowhere in the post it was stated that it would!). In short, SHAME ON YOU, fact checker, for a second time.
’nuff zed.