Simon Wiesenthal Center ‘deeply concerned’ Meta ending fact-checking

(JNS) — The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a nonprofit based in Los Angeles, is “deeply concerned” that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is discontinuing its fact-checking policy and relying more on users to say which posts they deem unfactual.

“This decision comes at a time of unprecedented surging antisemitism, particularly following the events of Oct. 7, making the rollback of critical safeguards exceedingly dangerous,” the center stated.

“This reckless move disregards the immense responsibility social-media companies bear in protecting vulnerable communities and mitigating the spread of harmful and dangerous ideologies,” the nonprofit stated. “History has repeatedly shown that online hate does not remain confined to the digital realm—it manifests in tragic offline consequences.”

Meta and Facebook had long been accused of leveraging fact-checking to silence the political right.

“The end of the Biden administration just so happened to coincide with the termination of censorship across Meta’s social-media platforms,” wrote Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.). “I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

Eliana Johnson, editor-in-chief of The Washington Free Beacon, wrote that one of the publication’s “run-ins” with the Facebook fact-checking program was when “our video of Biden reading teleprompter cues ‘end of quote’ and ‘repeat the line’ was labeled ‘false information’ by Politifact based on the say-so of a White House flack, who said Biden intended to do this.”

“That incident was one of many, many, many in which left-wing fact-checkers cited Democratic government officials to suppress critical or embarrassing news coverage and offers a case study of how fact-checkers worked arm-in-arm with bureaucrats to stamp out inconvenient truths,” Johnson wrote.

She added that “fact-checkers labeled a Free Beacon report on the Biden administration’s plan to fund the distribution of crack pipes ‘partially false’ based entirely on the backpedaling statements of administration officials provided after our report went to press.”

Following Meta’s announcement, the ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) issued a press release, warning about the danger posed to Jews by the newly announced policies. The group said that it is “mind blowing” that Meta “is taking significant steps back in terms of addressing antisemitism”, and said “all of society will suffer”.