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No more fact-checking for Meta. How will this change media — and the pursuit of truth?

12 Comments
By DAVID BAUDER

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12 Comments
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It means the educated will have to move off of Meta for news.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Whoever say the loudest, that will be truth. That's reality now.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Basic fact checking is just proper due diligence that should be done by all reporters who wish to maintain credibility. However, declaring some anonymous fact-checker with a bachelor’s degree at an Agency cutout funded organization to be the unfailing arbitrator of truth on contentious subjects, with the power to de-amplify, shadow-ban or outright censor those with non-concordant views -- especially on subjects where experts themselves are not in agreement, as happened during the pandemic (wet market or lab leak?) -- undermines the quest for the truth. The best solution is to allow an open public clash of ideas.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I don't think that much will change, for one simple reason: we're in the era of "I am right and that's the end of the story...and if I'm wrong, so what".

Back in the past, if a newspaper lied about someone, that someone could sue the newspaper and the newspaper would generally have to issue a retraction and print an apology. Now they usually did this in a very small font and hid it away at the bottom of the page in a section which nobody reads...but they did it.

Now people threaten media outlets for telling the truth.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

How can fact checkers, who doesn't know their right pronouns be fact checkers if they don't even know who they are? Mortals should start with basics to the complex and not the other way around.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Using an image of Pres elect Trump as click bait for this article is wrong. Shame on Japan Today.

As for eliminating "fact checking", I'm in agreement. Fact checking in the US has just become a method of suppression of free speech. Historically speaking, giving someone or the government the power to silence another "in the name of truth" never ends well.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

the growing proliferation of lies, clickbait lies, misinformation, disinformation, fake search results and pranks could eventually render the internet useless.

just like education in many areas of study has brought all teaching down to catering to the lowest students.

social entropy, everything hot and energetic deteriorates to cold and weak.

this will only expedite the decline.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I'm in the US for both holiday seasons and it really is shocking to see it up close rather than on the news we're all detached from. The USA has really degenerated into a third-world country! One of my friends here pointed out how they can't even get a job at a fast-food restaurant if they have a felony conviction, yet somehow someone can become president. It's crazy. Does the USA no longer respect laws, morals and decency? Every night here I've heard shootings. It's like a war zone between all the car alarms and gunfire every night. And this is in Austin, Texas!

With respect to social media like Meta, perhaps they should just block news from even being posted since they are a socializing network and not a journalism network. Meta's companies like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are simply virtual bars where everyone goes to get drunk off their personal bias. I am so glad that Asian social media companies are nothing like the American brands!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

the reverse culture shock is real, isn’t it?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Destin SkyeToday 04:07 am JST

I'm in the US for both holiday seasons and it really is shocking to see it up close rather than on the news we're all detached from. The USA has really degenerated into a third-world country!

And yet the US has 2x the median income of Japan.

One of my friends here pointed out how they can't even get a job at a fast-food restaurant if they have a felony conviction, yet somehow someone can become president.

Who are these friends with felony convictions?

And this is in Austin, Texas!

I suspect this is your problem although any inner city in a free country is not to be wandered around in at night.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

No more enforcement of their scripted narratives?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Some conservative suspicion of fact-checkers has been warranted because of mistakes that have been made, 

Understatement of the day. These 3rd party "fact checkers" have been acting as the thought police of the self-declared elite. X-style communiy notes is a far more acceptable model.

But it is understandable that the legacy media, once again marching in lockstep, prefers the Orwellian model.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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