Zuckerberg Uses Snopes to Fact-Check Joke About CNN Using Washing Machine to Spin News
Christian satire site The Babylon Bee faces demonetization and reduced viewership from Facebook after Snopes “fact checked” one of its blatantly satirical articles Thursday.
Snopes fact checked a Bee article titled “CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication,” and found that it was false.
Facebook then used the fact check to warn Babylon Bee Founder and editor Adam Ford that publishing more “disputed info” would result in demonetization and reduced viewership.
FEDERALIST: Facebook admits decision to threaten to censor Christian satire site Babylon Bee because it was flagged by Snopes for reporting fake news was a mistake
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) March 2, 2018
“Snopes has ‘fact-checked’ several of our articles before,” Ford told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“But this is the first time Facebook has used that to threaten us with reduced reach and demonetization.”
The idiots over at @snopes are now "fact-checking" admitted satire articles & working with Facebook to demote conservative sites that produce them.
This is the dumbest thing you'll read about this week.https://t.co/dyWaI8sNFj
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) March 2, 2018
Snopes acknowledged that the Bee’s article was satire, but claimed the fact check was justified because “some readers missed that aspect of the article and interpreted it literally.”
Snopes has a long history of dubious fact checks and has targeted the Bee’s satire 13 times and The Onion’s satire 17 times.
A Snopes article attempting to discredit a Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group news story revealing that millions of Department of State tax dollars were sent to a charity created by Secretary of State John Kerry’s daughter was also loaded with factual errors and omissions.
Snopes also employs failed liberal bloggers to do its fact checking.
Snopes’ main political fact-checker is a writer named Kim Lacapria. Before writing for Snopes, Lacapria wrote for Inquisitr, a blog that is known for publishing fake quotes and even downright hoaxes as much as anything else.
Facebook did not respond to a request for comment from TheDCNF in time for publication.
A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.
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