How can Facebook stop climate misinformation when its ‘fact-checkers’ are deniers?

The two fatal flaws in Zuckerberg’s plan to deal with fake news.

JOE ROMM
JUL 20, 2018, 8:35 AM

If you had any hope that Facebook would be a positive force in the fight against catastrophic climate change, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg dashed them this week.

Serious U.S. climate action has been stalled by billions of dollars in spending by the big fossil fuel polluters that have spread disinformation to politicians, the media, and the public.

But this week, Zuckerberg made clear that Facebook won’t explicitly ban either Holocaust denial or an extreme conspiracy theory guy like Alex Jones — who is a major climate science denier.

Worse, in clarifying his remarks, Zuckerberg said Wednesday that while he won’t block fake news from appearing on his site, his fact-checkers would stop it from spreading widely.

But we already know that Zuckerberg is partnering with a right-wing media outlet that spreads climate disinformation to fact-check stories. And he recently brought in a right-wing think tank that spreads climate disinformation to figure out whether Facebook displays a liberal bias.

Read more
https://thinkprogress.org/zuckerberg-clarification-shows-facebook-wont-stop-climate-denial-fd38fbc45cd4/