Fake Fact-Checking

Recently, I released a video that called California’s fires “government fueled.”

A few days later, Facebook inserted a warning on my video: “Missing Context. Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead.”

Some of my viewers now feel betrayed. One wrote: “Shameful, John … what happened to you!!? Your reporting was always fair … [but] your … fires story was so … unfair, even Facebook tagged it.”

A “fact check” from Facebook carries weight.

Worse, Facebook says that because my video is labeled misleading, it will show my content to fewer people.

This kills me. My news model counts on social media companies showing people my videos.

I confronted the fact-checkers. That’s the topic of my newest video.

Facebook‘s “fact check” links to a page from a group called Climate Feedback that claims it sorts “fact from fiction” about climate change.

It posted this complaint about my video: “Forest fires are caused by poor management. Not by climate change.” It calls that claim “misleading.”

It is misleading.

But I never said that! In my video, I acknowledged: “Climate change has made things worse. California has warmed 3 degrees over 50 years.”

I don’t know where Climate Feedback got its quote. Made it up? Quoted someone else?

Facebook lets activists restrict my videos based on something I never said.

Now, Facebook is a private company that can censor anything it wants. I understand the pressure it feels. All kinds of people demand that Facebook ban posts they don’t like.

There’s no way Facebook can police everything. The site carries billions of posts.

I wish it’d just let the information flow. People will gradually learn to sort truth from lies.

SOURCE

In Hong Kong you can now be censored for talking about free speech

A primary-school teacher in Hong Kong has been sacked for talking to her pupils about free speech and the Hong Kong independence movement.

The teacher stands accused of asking children ‘what is freedom of speech?’ and what they think is behind the rise of the Hong Kong independence movement.

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam, appointed by Beijing, defended the sacking, saying there was a need to remove ‘bad apples’ from education. ‘We do not allow independence and other unlawful ideas to creep on to campuses’, she added.

Hong Kong is supposed to have a degree of autonomy until 2047, but Beijing has become increasingly interventionist in recent years. Now apparently even discussing the fact that millions of Hong Kongers oppose China’s authoritarian takeover is enough to fall foul of the authorities.

Over the past year, protesters and opposition politicians have faced mass arrests and police brutality. The introduction of a new security law in June has made the crackdown even harsher.

Beijing’s terrifying repression of Hong Kong is a powerful reminder not to take free speech or democracy for granted.

SOURCE