Facebook: Waiting for it to blow over

Sometime way back when, prior to 3/11/20 when the WHO declared a worldwide “pandemic,” I had read that Facebook, prior to this bogus announcement, had employed additional personnel who were going to “fact check” posts and take down any that did not meet with the fake information that was put out by “authoritative” sources. I knew what lay in store. It wasn’t just Facebook, but tiny and insignificant websites like Next Door, The Canyon Courier, even stupid baseball blogs that were taking up the censorship cudgel. No one was allowed to question WHO and CDC, outfits that in the ensuing months have engaged in intense criminality and lying.

I quit Facebook. I knew what lay in store, and knew that Facebook would quit me as well. Earlier this year, on suggestion that having a Facebook account would yield access to things otherwise unavailable to me, I attempted to open an account. I wanted no “friends” or “likes”, and did not use my old email address, but rather a Protonmail one. Nonetheless, I learned that I was frozen in place and would not be granted an account. That is how thorough their censorship is. They had tracked me, even to supposedly secure Protonmail, another outfit I do not trust.

I think it is well understood here that Facebook, like Google, like Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft, is simply an Intelligence front, and that the technology supposedly offered by the “geniuses” (Bill Gates?!?!) is really a product of DARPA, and each device offered has more than one purpose. Mostly they are tracking us, collecting our information, storing it for future intimidation purposes. It is just computers doing the grunt work, but if necessary, they are able to reverse engineer our lives, storing everything we do. I quit Facebook, but Facebook did not quit me. Every word I’ve ever written there is stored,, including everything I deleted. Even under a Protonmail moniker, they still knew who I was, and banned me. Pretty insidious, no?

As an Intelligence front, Facebook has to appear to be the product of some fake genius, some Elon Musk-type character, a lifetime actor. The choice to front for the outfit was Mark Zuckerberg. Predictably, he is listed as a billionaire, and of course, a movie was made to reinforce the lie. He is nothing more than an actor, albeit a lifetime actor. As a salaried employee, he is no billionaire.

I am going to reprint here a public letter to Facebook from Fiona Godlee and Kamran Abbasi, editors of the British Medical Journal, whose work was overruled and “fact checked” by Zuckerberg gnomes and subjected to wanton censorship.  To be fair, Godlee and Abbasi may well be indulging themselves in unwarranted self praise, but it is nonetheless nice to see some high-profile attacks on Facebook, now engaged in stonewalling. Also note that Facebook, using a mere legal maneuver to avoid a libel lawsuit brought by John Stossel, claimed that its “fact-checking” is a mere expression of opinion, not subject to legal challenge. That’s our legal system at its best, not involved in justice, but rather rewarding victory to the side with the best lawyers. Facebook has indeed been involved in low and vile censorship on behalf of both the Climate Change and Covid hoaxes, and has probably been quietly assured that nothing will come of it, to lay low and let it blow over.

Here is the open letter provided by Godlee and Abbasi:

Dear Mark Zuckerberg,

We are Fiona Godlee and Kamran Abbasi, editors of The BMJ, one of the world’s oldest and most influential general medical journals. We are writing to raise serious concerns about the “fact checking” being undertaken by third party providers on behalf of Facebook/Meta.

In September, a former employee of Ventavia, a contract research company helping carry out the main Pfizer covid-19 vaccine trial, began providing The BMJ with dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings, and emails. These materials revealed a host of poor clinical trial research practices occurring at Ventavia that could impact data integrity and patient safety. We also discovered that, despite receiving a direct complaint about these problems over a year ago, the FDA did not inspect Ventavia’s trial sites.

The BMJ commissioned an investigative reporter to write up the story for our journal. The article was published on 2 November, following legal review, external peer review and subject to The BMJ’s usual high level editorial oversight and review.[1]

But from November 10, readers began reporting a variety of problems when trying to share our article. Some reported being unable to share it. Many others reported having their posts flagged with a warning about “Missing context … Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people.” Those trying to post the article were informed by Facebook that people who repeatedly share “false information” might have their posts moved lower in Facebook’s News Feed. Group administrators where the article was shared received messages from Facebook informing them that such posts were “partly false.”

Readers were directed to a “fact check” performed by a Facebook contractor named Lead Stories.[2]

We find the “fact check” performed by Lead Stories to be inaccurate, incompetent and irresponsible.

— It fails to provide any assertions of fact that The BMJ article got wrong

— It has a nonsensical title: “Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials”

— The first paragraph inaccurately labels The BMJ a “news blog”

— It contains a screenshot of our article with a stamp over it stating “Flaws Reviewed,” despite the Lead Stories article not identifying anything false or untrue in The BMJ article

— It published the story on its website under a URL that contains the phrase “hoax-alert”

We have contacted Lead Stories, but they refuse to change anything about their article or actions that have led to Facebook flagging our article.

We have also contacted Facebook directly, requesting immediate removal of the “fact checking” label and any link to the Lead Stories article, thereby allowing our readers to freely share the article on your platform.

There is also a wider concern that we wish to raise. We are aware that The BMJ is not the only high quality information provider to have been affected by the incompetence of Meta’s fact checking regime. To give one other example, we would highlight the treatment by Instagram (also owned by Meta) of Cochrane, the international provider of high quality systematic reviews of the medical evidence.[3] Rather than investing a proportion of Meta’s substantial profits to help ensure the accuracy of medical information shared through social media, you have apparently delegated responsibility to people incompetent in carrying out this crucial task. Fact checking has been a staple of good journalism for decades. What has happened in this instance should be of concern to anyone who values and relies on sources such as The BMJ.

We hope you will act swiftly: specifically to correct the error relating to The BMJ’s article and to review the processes that led to the error; and generally to reconsider your investment in and approach to fact checking overall.

Best wishes,

Fiona Godlee, editor in chief
Kamran Abbasi, incoming editor in chief
The BMJ

Competing interests:
As current and incoming editors in chief, we are responsible for everything The BMJ contains.

References:

[1] Thacker PD. Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial. BMJ. 2021 Nov 2;375:n2635. doi: 10.1136/bmj.n2635. PMID: 34728500. https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635

[2] Miller D. Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials. Nov 10, 2021. ​​https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/11/fact-check-british-medical-jo…

[3] https://twitter.com/cochranecollab/status/1458439812357185536

h/t: My favorite website of all time, Wattsupwiththat