Fact-checking firm staffed by CNN alums takes Meta axing hard: ‘surprised and disappointed’

A prominent fact-checking organization used by Facebook to moderate political content has responded to news that it will revamp its fact-checking to better avoid bias with an article detailing its disappointment and disagreement with the movement.

“Lead Stories was surprised and disappointed when it first learned of press reports and press releases about the end of the Meta Third-Party-Fact-Checking Partnership that Lead Stories has been a part of since 2019,” wrote Lead Stories editor Maarten Schenk on Tuesday. . in response to an announcement from Meta that it would radically change its fact-checking process to “restore free speech.”

Lead Stories, a Facebook fact-checker that employs several CNN alumni including Alan Duke and Ed Payne, has become one of the most prominent fact-checkers Facebook has used in recent years.

Fox News Digital first reported On Tuesday Meta is ending its fact-checking program and removing restrictions on speech to “restore free speech” across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms, admitting that its current content moderation processes “have gone too far.”

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“After Trump was first elected in 2016, the media wrote nonstop about how misinformation is a threat to democracy,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video message Tuesday. “We have sincerely tried to address these concerns without being fact-checkers. But fact-checkers have become more politically biased and more destructive of trust than they used to be, especially in the US.”

“Where is the political bias?” an article from Lead Stories asks before explaining that “it’s disappointing to hear Mark Zuckerberg accuse the organizations in Meta’s US third-party fact-checking program of being ‘too politically biased.'”

“Especially since one of Meta’s requirements to be part of the partnership includes being a certified signatory to the IFCN Code of Conduct, which clearly requires a ‘commitment to impartiality and fairness,'” the article states. “In all the years we have been part of the partnership, neither we nor IFCN have received any complaints from Meta about any political bias, so we were very surprised by this. statement.”

Meta said in its announcement that it would be moving to a rating system more in line with Community Notes at X, which Lead Stories seems to oppose.

“However, in our experience and that of others, Public Notes on X are often slow to appear, sometimes inaccurate and may not appear on controversial posts due to a lack of consensus. [sic] or consensus among users,” writes Lead Stories. “In the end, truth does not care about consensus or agreement: the state of the Earth remains the same even if social media users cannot agree on it.”

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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, arrives to testify before the US Senate Judiciary Committee, “Big Tech and the Problem of Online Child Sexual Exploitation,” in Washington, DC, on January 31, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Lead Stories added that Public Notes “is not completely transparent about its contributors: readers are left guessing about their bias, funding, credibility, sources or expertise and there is no way to appeal or correct” while “the fact-checkers, on the other hand.” hand, IFCN is required to be fully transparent about who they are, who is funding them and what means and sources they are using to achieve their ends.”

Schenk added, “Fact-checking is about adding verified and verified information so people can decide what to believe. It’s an important part of free speech.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Duke said Lead Stories plans to continue.

“Lead Stories will continue even though we have to reduce our product without Meta’s funding,” said Duke. “We operate worldwide, most of our business is outside the USA. We publish in eight languages ​​other than English, which will be affected.”

Some conservatives took to social media and blasted Lead Stories over their articles complaining about the change in Meta after years of pushback from Facebook fact-checkers as a whole on important news stories, including oppression of the bomb report on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

“Of all the truth-seeking companies, Lead Stories are the worst,” British-American author Ian Haworth posted on X. “I will not be happy that they will soon be around the canal.”

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(Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The executive director of Politifact, a fact-checker also used by Facebook, issued a strong rebuke of Zuckerberg following Tuesday’s announcement.

“If Meta got upset and created a hacking tool, it should look in the mirror,” Aaron Sharockman said in a statement to X following Zuckerberg’s announcement.

Sharockman raged and said, “The decision to remove independent journalists from Facebook’s content moderation system in the United States has nothing to do with free speech or research. Mark Zuckerberg’s decision could not have been subtle.”

He dismissed Zuckerberg’s accusations of political bias, saying that Meta forums, not fact-checkers, are the real organizations. checked post.

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once said Facebook suppressed 18 million posts containing “false information” about COVID-19. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Let me be clear: the decision to remove or punish a post or account is made by Meta and Facebook, not fact-checkers. They make the rules,” Sharockman said.

At the end of his Lead Stories post, Schenk wrote, “While we are disappointed by this news, Lead Stories wishes to thank the many people at Meta that we have worked with over the years and will continue our fact-checking work. To summarize the slogan on our main page: ‘Because that it’s now trending without a fact-checking label wouldn’t be true.’

Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.