Fact-checking has emerged as one of the most prominent policy tools to combat the spread of misinformation, but critics have argued that it infringes upon freedom of expression and that it has no meaningful impact on the circulation of misinformation. This column provides evidence from the field that fact-checking significantly reduces engagement with posts on Facebook rated as false and also decreases users' subsequent activity. The findings suggest that the impact of fact-checking primarily results not from Facebook’s actions to hide or demote content, but rather from users’ behavioural responses, challenging the idea that it suppresses free speech.
Isn’t this what editors used to do?
Somewhat, many of them also inserted their own biases - e.x. headlines.
The news/information landscape is pretty fucked, a handful of mainstream sources that all proliferate the same information. It became painfully apparent how biased these groups were with the genocide in Gaza and their attempts to suppress or distort the facts.
Luckily there are amazing independent or small scale journalists, who do real investigative research and deep dives but they’re so poorly funded.
Lie factories like Facebook need to be dismantled, and funding needs to go to prop up high quality news sources.