The New York Times got a lot of attention on Tuesday for a headline about Meta-fact-checkers fact-checking their own critics.
Meta announced that this would be so put an end to its controversial fact-checking practices and lifting restrictions on speech to “restore free speech” on Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms, admitting that current content moderation practices have “gone too far.”
But former third-party fact-checking partners took issue with allegations of bias and censorship in their work. PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharockman blasted the decision in a social media post, saying: “If Meta is angry, it has created a tool for censorship, it would look in the mirror.”
The New York Times published a piece on the response of such fact-checking organizations with the headline: “Meta Says Fact-Checkers Were the Problem. Fact-Checkers Determine False.” The article said: “Fact-checking groups that worked with Meta said they had no role in deciding what the company did with the content it fact-checked.”
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 23: The New York Times corporate logo hangs above the front door of their headquarters on October 23, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images) (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
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But users in the X social media platform scoffed with the headline.
“This does an effective job of exposing the problem with the fact-checking industry (perhaps accidentally),” Reason editor-in-chief Robby Soave noted.
“Fact-checkers fact-checking claim that fact-checkers are the problem. Real headline from the NY Times,” noted civil liberties attorney Laura Powell. “How can anyone produce satire when traditional media has become so ridiculous?”
“This is amazing. Meta says fact checkers were the problem. Fact checkers consider that untrue,” Analytics Miami founder Ana Bozovic said in a post. “To round off the absurdity, this is the NYT report.”
Tech billionaires, including Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have been supporting Trump since his victory on Election Day. (Getty Images)
“They actually wrote this and then published it,” Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo marveled.
Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Z. Hemingway wrote: “A headline that goes beyond parody from the New York Times propaganda outlet.”
“I had to look it up myself because I couldn’t believe it wasn’t a parody,” political columnist Moshe Hill wrote in surprise: “It’s real.”
Meteorologist and data scientist John Basham joked that the headline “could easily have come” from the political satire website The Babylon Bee, adding: “Life has become a parody of the left.”
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Andrew Mark Miller of Fox News contributed to this report.
