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<\/a>\u00a9 Global Look \/ Joel Goodman<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
RT.com<\/p>\n
Two of Facebook\u2019s US \u201cfact-checkers\u201d tasked with keeping fake news from proliferating have chosen to quit doing the job for the social media giant while issuing cryptic statements concerning their continuing relationship.<\/p>\n
Snopes and the Associated Press have both ended their fact-checking partnerships with Facebook, releasing carefully-worded statements that leave open the possibility of future collaboration while making it clear the checking of facts will fall to whoever is left \u2013 Politifact, FactCheck.org, AFP, and the Atlantic Council, which\u00a0lurks<\/a>\u00a0in the background, keeping the platform safe for democracy.<\/p>\n Snopes, the rumor oracle that became famous for settling the truth of urban legends, issued a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0announcing it had \u201celected not to renew [its] partnership<\/em>\u201d with Facebook, citing the costs and \u201cramifications<\/em>\u201d of offering third-party fact-checking while stressing it hopes to \u201cdiscuss other approaches to combating misinformation<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cForgoing an economic opportunity is not a decision that we or any other journalistic enterprise can take lightly<\/em>,\u201d Snopes admits. Like many in the mainstream media these days, the site is adorned with fundraising banners and claims to be cash-strapped. The company received $100,000 from Facebook for its fact-checking services last year, a sum founder David Mikkelson stressed it did not ask for. Regarding the split, Mikkelson\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0TechCrunch that the partnership \u201cwasn\u2019t working well for us as an organization<\/em>,\u201d citing a lack of data on the effectiveness of the fact-checking program.<\/p>\n Former Snopes employees had more to say about Facebook last month, accusing the platform of “using us for crisis PR<\/em>” and ignoring fact-checkers\u2019 concerns \u2013 about fake news, harassment, and even the conscription of the network in the persecution of Myanmar\u2019s Rohingya Muslims. The financial relationship made one employee feel “really gross<\/em>,” as she felt it prevented the company from accurately reporting on negative rumors involving Facebook. And the site\u2019s own fake-news-pushing on George Soros didn\u2019t exactly improve morale.<\/p>\n The AP had less to say about its pullout, though a representative told TechCrunch that while it was \u201cno longer doing fact checking work for the program, it is not leaving it altogether<\/em>.\u201d Calls for clarification were not immediately answered.<\/p>\n The timing of both companies\u2019 recusals is suspicious, given the recent rollout of the Orwellian\u00a0NewsGuard<\/a>\u00a0app on\u00a0Microsoft<\/a>\u2019s mobile browser and in some US libraries. NewsGuard, an app which users have quickly found assigns reliability ratings based more on a site\u2019s conformity to the mainstream neoliberal narrative than its\u00a0veracity<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 has been praised as a great leap forward in the fight against fake news. Is this what Mikkelson means by \u201cother approaches to combating misinformation<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n