Social media giant Facebook is censoring reports that link Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration to last year’s sabotage attack that destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines in Europe.
The governments of multiple nations concluded in their investigations that the pipelines, that pump natural gas from Russia to Europe, were deliberately destroyed by underwater explosions.
Earlier this year, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a report asserting that the pipelines were destroyed by the U.S. government as part of a covert operation.
According to Hersh, the operation was led by the Biden admin and organized with the aid of the Norwegian government, the Norwegian Secret Service, and the Navy.
However, Facebook is now censoring the story from the renowned reporter and, instead, directs users to an article by unknown “fact-checkers” that disputes Hersh’s bombshell reporting.
Journalist Michael Shellenberger first noticed the issue when he tried to post Hersh’s article on Facebook.
When Shellenberger tried to share the report with his followers, the social media giant slapped a warning label on the link.
The Facebook label warns users: “False information. Checked by independent fact-checkers.”
Yet, the so-called “fact-checkers” in question aren’t independent at all, however.
As Shellenberger notes, “Hersh is infinitely more independent than Facebook’s Norwegian fact-checker.
“The fact-checking organization is a partnership with a Norwegian government-owned media company, NRK, which has a direct self-interest in censoring the story.”
Shellenberger posted a video to Twitter to demonstrate what happens when a person tries to share the report from Hersh.
There is a big debate over who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. Instead of allowing the debate, Facebook has decided to take a side. It is censoring Pulitzer-winning journalist Seymour Hersh. And instead of explaining, Facebook sends readers to an article in Norwegian. Watch pic.twitter.com/nN18HovBPR
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) April 19, 2023
By censoring the article with a dubious “fact check,” Facebook is preventing it from reaching a much wider audience.
When an article is slapped with a “fact check,” it is covered with a warning label buried in Facebook’s News Feed algorithm.
Despite Hersh being far more qualified than the failed journalists who resort to “fact-checking” other reporters, his article is automatically overruled on Facebook by the “fact-check.”
If someone shares an article deemed “false” by Facebook’s faceless “fact checkers,” their friends and followers will likely never see it.
This is yet another example of how the “fact-checker industrial complex” serves to censor legitimate information at the behest of governments by posing as an independent, non-bias actor.
In reality, “fact checkers” are merely a front for state censorship control.
Several years ago, in defense of its “fact-checking” process, Facebook insisted that it cannot act as “the arbiter of the truth” for any contentious issue.
Nevertheless, this claim has now been proven dishonest once again.
“Whether Hersh is wrong or right, his reporting should be debated publicly, not censored,” Shellenberger asserted on Twitter.
“Facebook’s actions are antithetical to America’s tradition of free and open debate and its rejection of secretive, authoritarian censorship.
“The American people have given Facebook broad liability protections under Section 230 that other media companies don’t get.
“And yet Facebook is acting like a media company, not a platform.
“As such, Facebook is putting its Section 230 protection at risk.
“And censoring Hersh may only attract more attention to it.”
