Fact-checking: from censorship to admission of failure ?

creative commons

While Zuckerberg has just announced the removal of his fact-checking service in the United States, and the European media are panicking about the implications of this decision for their own services, general practitioner Véronique Baudoux recalls on X (Twitter) the schizophrenia, hypocrisy or more simply the stupidity that the methods of fact-checkers have engendered, to the detriment of those who have really suffered from the vaccination campaign and the side effects of the vaccine.

The Twitter post can be summed up as follows: In November 2022, an anti-Fake News conference was held in the Belgian Senate during which the representative of Meta explained that Facebook was working with the authorities to remove “false information” concerning Covid vaccines, RTBf also developed partnerships with international fact-checking networks.

During the conference, he It is explained that fact-checking platforms can act directly on social networks to correct false information, including, for example, that of a woman who shares a study saying that it proves the link between vaccines and myocarditis.

This symposium followed the hearing report published in October 2021 in which we could read that Facebook/Instagram had deleted more than 12 million messages worldwide concerning Covid vaccines between March and October 2020.

Today, RTBf is offended by Zuckerberg's decision to remove moderation on Facebook. But Zuckerberg believes that fact-checking had contributed to reducing trust rather than improving it. For RTBf, freedom of expression is the loser, it is a threat to democracy and uses a quote from Hannah Arendt to raise the specter of the “bygone past” by reversing the accusations of “opinion manipulation”.

According to RTBf, when Facebook deleted information about the side effects of vaccines (including myocarditis), it was not opinion manipulation and was simply better for “democracy”.

The general practitioner then illustrates her point: “When I tried to share the French Senate report also confirming that Facebook had “fought against disinformation on social networks”, Facebook deleted my comment, warning me that it did not meet “community standards”. Facebook was therefore censoring publications demonstrating Facebook's censorship… QED”

11/n When I tried to share the French Senate report also confirming that FB had “fought against disinformation on social networks “, Facebook deleted my comment, warning me that it did not meet “community standards”. pic.twitter.com/merP8K9G2m

— Véronique Baudoux (@VBaudoux) January 10, 2025

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