Claims

Factual · Their own work or organisation

“That’s why we work with independent fact checkers to stop hoaxes that are going viral from spreading.”

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, speaking at Georgetown · 17 October 2019 · Mark Zuckerberg Stands for Voice and Free Expression (Meta Newsroom)

Facebook works with independent fact checkers to stop viral hoaxes from spreading.

Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.

The second judge said resolved true; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.

What would count as true or false

Judge as of 2019-10-17. True: evidence shows that in October 2019 Facebook had active partnerships with independent third-party fact-checkers (for example IFCN-certified organisations) whose ratings were used to reduce the spread of false or viral hoax content (demotion, labels, warnings). Mostly true: the partnerships existed and were used to limit hoaxes, but with a minor gap in the details (for example mainly reducing reach rather than fully stopping spread, or limited to some regions or content types). Mixed: the partnerships existed but evidence shows they were applied to viral hoaxes only in a minor or inconsistent way. Mostly false: fact-checker partnerships existed in name but were not actually used to curb the spread of hoaxes at that time. False: Facebook had no independent fact-checking partnerships in October 2019.

Evidence

1. Protecting the EU Elections From Misinformation and Expanding Our Fact-Checking Program to New Languages Facebook (about.fb.com newsroom) · 25 April 2019 Own record

   “One of the ways we reduce the spread of false news is by partnering with independent, third-party fact-checkers around the world.”

2. Company That Profits Off Political Misinformation Says It's Going to Do More to Stop It Gizmodo · 21 October 2019

   “At least two of Facebook’s fact-checking partners, Politifact and Factcheck.org, have reviewed Trump’s assertion, featured in his new ad. Both fact-checkers clearly concluded that Trump’s claim about Biden was false.”

3. Facebook March 2019 monthly update on implementation of the Code of Practice on Disinformation Facebook (report hosted by astrid-online.it) Own record

   “Globally, all of our partners are certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which recently launched an E.U.-wide fact-checking effort ahead of the”

4. Increasing Our Efforts to Fight False News Facebook (about.fb.com newsroom) · 21 June 2018 Own record

   “These certified, independent fact-checkers rate the accuracy of stories on Facebook, helping us reduce the distribution of stories rated as false by an average of 80%.”

Reasoning

E2, an independent Gizmodo report from 21 October 2019, names Politifact and Factcheck.org as Facebook's fact-checking partners at that time, which confirms the partnerships were active. Facebook's own newsroom posts and report (E1, E3, E4) say the partners were independent and IFCN-certified, and that their ratings were used to reduce the spread of false stories. E4 gives an average reduction in distribution of 80%. The evidence shows the ratings reduced the reach of hoaxes rather than fully stopping them. The criteria name this as a minor gap, so the verdict is mostly true.

Cite this claim

Mark Zuckerberg, “Facebook works with independent fact checkers to stop viral hoaxes from spreading.” (said 17 October 2019). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_1bb6364285cb, method 0.1.0+3f84d14d. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_1bb6364285cb