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by goatinaboat 1854 days ago
I actually give them a bit of a pass here.

Let’s be honest here, they said it was fake for no other reason than Trump said it. There was literally no more thought that went into it than that. And they’ve stopped for the exact same reason, their preferred candidate said it so ergo it must be true.

2 comments

You're entirely correct -- I am not denying Facebook the company has strong political leanings, or that it doesn't, shall we say, "influence" its fact checkers. But in this particular case, the lab-leak theory, traditional media was so aggressive in shutting it down and "confirming" its falsehood (despite not having any actual facts or evidence), that Facebook really had no choice.
traditional media was so aggressive in shutting it down and "confirming" its falsehood

Agreed, all of them did it for the same reason and mutually reinforced each other, an extraordinary example of groupthink.

Let's assume for a moment that is their strategy, consider things about Covid true if Biden says them, and false if Trump says them, and accept their joint decision if they happen to agree.

That would be basically 100% record of getting things right, so well done Facebook I guess the algorithm is working.

Can anyone name specific instances when Trump and Biden disagreed on a factual statement regarding Covid where this rule of thumb didn't pan out? I'm coming up pretty blank, but surely the law of averages suggests there must have been a handful?