Facebook “fact-checked” the article with a Norwegian source.
QUICK FACTS:
- Facebook has censored Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s story regarding the Biden administration’s alleged involvement in the Nord Stream pipeline attack alongside the Norwegian government and the country’s Secret Service and Navy.
- The social media platform released a warning label on the link to the story reading, “False information. Checked by independent fact-checkers.”
- The “independent fact-checkers” are connected to a Norwegian government-affiliated media organization, NRK.
- Journalist Michael Shellenberger discovered the connection when he attempted to post Hersh’s article on Facebook and subsequently investigated the “fact-checking” link.
FROM SHELLENBERGER:
- “Hersh is infinitely more independent than Facebook’s Norwegian fact-checker,” notes Shellenberger on his Substack. “The fact-checking organization is a partnership with a Norwegian government-owned media company, NRK, which has a direct self-interest in censoring the story.”
- “The American people have given Facebook broad liability protections under Section 230 that other media companies don’t get. And yet Facebook is acting like a media company, not a platform,” the journalist explained. “As such, Facebook is putting its Section 230 protection at risk. And censoring Hersh may only attract more attention to it.”
- Section 230, part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, “provides immunity to online platforms from civil liability based on third-party content and for the removal of content in certain circumstances,” according to the Justice Department.
- “Why is Facebook doing it?” asks Shellenberger. “Why would it risk so much to censor a single article?”
BACKGROUND:
- In February 2023, American Faith reported that investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claimed that the Nord Stream pipeline explosion was orchestrated by the Biden White House.
- Hersh alleged that U.S. deep-sea divers used a NATO military exercise as a cover to plant mines along the pipelines, which were later detonated remotely.
- According to Hersh, President Biden ordered the sabotage in a partnership with Norway.
