Whom does Facebook trust to censor?
A Ph.D. graduate from France.
Really.
The Frenchman, Emmanuel Vincent, started a group he calls “Climate Feedback.” It does “a new kind of fact-checking.”
It sure is new.
And wrong.
I released a video in which some climate scientists argue that climate change is not a “crisis.” They believe people can adjust to changing temperatures.
Twenty-five million people watched the video.
But now Facebook will not show it to you because Emmanuel Vincent suddenly called it “partially false.”
Vincent would not agree to an interview. Nor would most of his “reviewers.” Only one, Patrick Brown, an assistant professor at San Jose State, agreed to an interview.
Brown doesn’t like that my video suggests that America can adjust to rising sea levels by building dikes and doing other things like Holland has.
That’s “not the mainstream view,” he says.
Brown claims sea levels could rise 200 feet.
“You’re citing an extreme,” I point out. “The IPCC doesn’t consider that likely.”
“I don’t know if they assess sea level rise out to a thousand years,” he responds.
No. Of course, they don’t.
In a thousand years, we may have carbon-eating machines.
It’s absurd that Facebook lets Climate Feedback censor me because of something that might happen in 1,000 years.
My video also questioned the claim that hurricanes have gotten stronger.
“Misleads viewers,” said Climate Feedback.
But on this topic, reviewer Brown said my video is accurate! “That’s wrong that you were criticized for saying that,” he says. “The IPCC (doesn’t) claim that (hurricanes)… droughts… floods are increasing.”
Later Brown emailed us, saying that “the problem is omission of contextual information rather than ‘facts’ being ‘wrong.'”
Oh. Climate Feedback’s “fact-check” wasn’t about actual facts.
“It’s a tonal thing,” Brown told me.
Facebook censors me because climate alarmists don’t like my “tone.”
I appealed, asking Facebook to remove the erroneous “fact-check.”
No one has responded.
Maybe, someday, skepticism about climate change being a “crisis” will prove foolish. But we don’t know that today. It’s a question that deserves debate, not censorship.
Someone should respond to climate alarmism, because people are terrified.
“Children are frightened that they’re going to drown,” I tell Brown. “Young adults aren’t having babies because they think climate change is going to end the world!”
Brown acknowledged that many people are too fearful.
“I get emails: ‘Is it worth it to have a kid … in this terrible world that’s going to be destroyed by climate change? I’m so scared about famine in my lifetime!’ I just reply and say, the reports don’t say that.”
But his email responses aren’t enough. We need Facebook to allow videos like mine to reach millions of people.
But Vincent doesn’t want that. And, amazingly, Facebook lets him decide.
It’s the second time his group smeared me. Last time, they didn’t even watch my video!
The worst part for me is that Vincent’s smear means that Facebook now shows all my videos to fewer people.
That hurts. Of the 25 million people who watched my climate video, 24 million watched on Facebook.
“I am sympathetic with what you’re saying,” says Brown. “At the same time, I like the idea of having some type of system where content can be compared to what experts think.”
Emmanuel Vincent says he hopes to expand his group and censor YouTube and Twitter, too. He’s eager to make sure people are frightened about climate change.
“What happens with groups like Climate Feedback,” says Brown, “they’re looking at emissions and nothing happens, policy-wise. … They develop this bias: ‘We really need to fact-check something that goes against the narrative!'”
Climate Feedback’s “fact-checks” do sometimes criticize alarmism, too, if it’s truly absurd, like New York Magazine’s cover story, “Uninhabitable Earth.”
But as I told Brown, “There were three times as many fact-checks on skeptics as on alarmists.”
“That’s wrong,” he responded. “They should be fact-checking the alarmist side just as much.”
They should. But they don’t.
Vincent and Climate Feedback doesn’t want debate. They want to silence debate.
Facebook lets them.
Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels
Thank you for sound information.
And Facebook, nor this ‘fact check’ group, will ever apologize. Keep up the good fight, Stossel!
These fact check idiots are destroying our right to free speech and spreading their narrative which in many cases are not factual
I would have never believed the world would come to this. I remember when media would put on a disclaimer to the effect:
“Independent journalist. This channel does not support or endorse the views held by the commentor”. What happened to that?
Science has said the world was covered in ice at one time; if the temperatures were not increasing since that time, we would not be living here. As more of the ice has melted, the temperature will logically increase a small amount, just like the temperature in your cooler will increase as the ice melts. Plus, actual measurements of temperature, ozone layers and such have only been accurate for the last few centuries as opposed to being from the beginning of time. Weather patterns change, which is evident when they find archeological remains in the Arctic when the ice has melted; it means it has melted before and that is how the artifact got there in the first place. We need to respect the environment without being an alarmist. And we already have carbon eating machines, they are called plants….
I agree with you about the carbon eating machines called plants. Then we also have the other carbon eating machines called animals, some are on land, but even more are in the sea. Eventually these machines die and drop to the bottom of the oceans, where they are soon locked under layers of sediment and disappear for millions of years. The more CO2 the more leafy green stuff and the more food for animals and the more CO2 gets locked away. Check out lantern fish for years they blocked radar transmission between 200 and 600 meters below surface.
We need to be able to fact check the fact checkers. If that doesn’t work maybe we need another venue where discussion and debate is allowed. Then maybe the monopoly that Facebook is will fall apart.
I repeatedly get 30 day fb bans for bizarre things. A widely circulated pic of an arm getting an injection “violated community standards of nudity and sexual content.” All posts discussing the possible lab origin of covid received bans… prior to facts supporting lab origin of covid. Have been called baby killer, c**t, f***ing b***h, etc and those lovely folks suffer no ramifications. I called someone ignorant, got a 30 day ban. Once you get on the wrong side of the “fact checkers,” you get scrutinized for posts going back years. Fb is literally like a junior high mean girls club.
It’s just typical Facebook because they are so far left they can’t even see the center stage anymore. They can’t have people thinking for themselves, looking at ALL the information available and decide for themselves or GOD FORBID decide to do research for themselves. They want us lined up listening to ONLY the views of the people they support. It’s just typical liberal Facebook bullshit!
Thanks, John. I really value your posts! I have these same feelings. It’s one thing to disagree; it’s entirely another to hate or silence those with whom you disagree. Free speech is such a treasure that I feel too many people feel should only be one-sided, for them.
Great Job
Some to learn
FB moderation is truly pathetic. I am now on a 30 day block due to using the word pathetic. As I did above. They called that bullying and harassing. Their treatment of you is even more egregious. However, as long as their advertising sales are not damaged. They will not quit, become more responsive or change thei arrogant attitude.
I don’t understand why reasonable people are afraid of debate or opposing opinions. What would have happened if FB waa around when Christopher Columbus was trying to convince people the world was not flat? Some people believe we are smarter than our forefathers. I’m not so sure about that, have you read the owners manual to a new car? Does it really have to tell people not to drink battery acid! Oh my God, what are we raising.
Climate alarmism is the biggest hoax perpetrated in the history of man
Can we start our own fact check group?
Bjorn Lomborg is excellent
and not a denier
He has ax book out and great videos
Thank you John
It’s a trillion $ money grab and we have NO
Idea whose pockets are getting filled
Great points. Social media is the new one think, one thought form of intellectual expression. I’m an intelligent person. Give me accurate facts and I can make up my own mind how I want things to go. I don’t need a “fud” in France telling me what and how to think.
My English is not accurate .
In Michel Moor documentary Planet of humans it is mentioned that the energy used to produce and install a unit of solar panel or wind turbine will be never returned. Can you make a show to prove or not that and make sure I’ll receive and watch it (my email) !?
I have personally had it with fact checkers. Who is checking them.à
It is just woke brain dead fake science , as seen on national geographic 20 years ago ,after doing ice cores miles deep scientists concluded we are in a cycle headed for a ice age, including the fact that high CO levels precede it. and if you do not agree with the he site owners perspectives he turns and takes away your freedom of speech. Such a cowardly thing to do steaing people’s rights. I pray the supreme court stops this dictator from stealing our rights on this open public forum or better yet he see the light of reason and returns to a constitutional perspective
I dropped all social media last year. I get these videos, and ones like them because I have subscribed to them.
Like many I thought the answer would be social media alternatives. After trying almost all of them it became apparent to me that the problem isn’t Twitter, Facebook, or any particular platform. It’s social media that is the problem. They’ll all inevitably end up the same way.
Divest. If you want this content, and more go to where social media has no power.
Go to their .com’s, and subscribe to their email lists.
I’ve been much happier, and less stressed since leaving social media. You will too.
Thanks John!!
The fact that they won’t debate is very alarming
Great video. John is Mark Zuckerberg part of the Great Reset? It seems that FB is trying to phase out the conservative views with their alarmist fact checkers. They seem to ignore common sense and logical thinking and are pushing the masses to accept their opinion as the only factual information. I wish you would do a piece on the Great Reset and let people see how the people with money and power are eyeing control of the world. Keep up the fight!