'Authoritarian' fact-checkers misleading public on Covid studies, warns journalist
21 November 2020, 16:52
Gen. Sec. of Free Speech Union disgraces Facebook fact checkers
Following the censoring of a study on the efficacy of face masks, this journalist accused online fact-checkers of jumping to conclusions.
Toby Young is Associate Editor of The Spectator and he was speaking to Maajid Nawaz following Facebook's decision to censor an article based on a Danish study on the efficacy of face masks.
The General Secretary of the Free Speech Union insisted that this not only is a breach of the free speech of Carl Heneghan, the director of the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University who was censored by Facebook "but the rights of the audience," who are prevented from viewing the article with a neutral mindset.
Mr Young told Maajid the article was deemed "inaccurate and misleading" by Facebook, before revealing that when he checked the piece again, there was no grounds for censorship.
"The reasons he'd given for flagging us misleading were misleading," Mr Young revealed.
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"All the fact checker had done was to base his conclusion on the headline," the journalist insisted.
Mr Young argued that "it's not just that Facebook is being censorious and authoritarian," but that those who they employ to censor are "doing it in such an incompetent way."
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