Facebook on Friday said it mistakenly threatened to demonetize a satirical website\u2019s social networking account after one of its articles, \u201cCNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication,\u201d was debunked by Snopes, the fact-checking site used to help counter the platform\u2019s fake news problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cA page you admin (The Babylon Bee) recently posted the link (CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication) that contains info disputed by (Snopes.com), an independent fact checker,\u201d Facebook wrote in a message sent Thursday to The Babylon Bee founder Adam Ford. \u201cRepeat offenders will see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetize and advertised removed,\u201d the message said.<\/p>\n
The blatantly satirical article should not have been flagged as fake news, Facebook conceded Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a difference between false news and satire,\u201d Facebook said in a statement. \u201cThis was a mistake and should not have been rated false in our system. It\u2019s since been corrected and won\u2019t count against the domain in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Snopes, the article\u2019s satirical nature wasn\u2019t immediately apparent among everyone who read it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough it should have been obvious that the Babylon Bee piece was just a spoof of the ongoing political brouhaha over alleged news media \u2018bias\u2019 and \u2018fake news,\u2019 some readers missed that aspect of the article and interpreted it literally,\u201d Snopes said.<\/p>\n
The Babylon Bee brands itself as \u201cYour Trusted Source For Christian News Satire.\u201d Nonetheless, Snopes has debunked 13 of its articles since 2016, including write-ups with titles including \u201cSouthern Baptist Convention Purchases Chick-Fil-A For $5.5 Billion\u201d and \u201cIs Playing Christmas Music Before Thanksgiving Now a Federal Crime?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time Facebook has used that to threaten us with reduced reach and demonetization,\u201d Mr. Ford told PJ Media after receiving the initial warning Thursday. \u201cAlso it seems that anyone who clicked on the article got a notice that it was \u2018disputed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Established in 1995, Snopes partnered with Facebook in 2016 to help fact-check a flood of fake news stories being shared among its users.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to help empower Facebook users to better control and enhance their own online experience, and we believe that increasing the flow and visibility of accurate, vetted information is one of the best ways to do that,\u201d Snopes said at the time.<\/p>\n
More recently, the Department of Justice last month filed criminal charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies accused of using Facebook to spread disinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential race.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Facebook on Friday said it mistakenly threatened to demonetize a satirical website’s social networking account after one of its articles, “CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News B Facebook on Friday said it mistakenly threatened to demonetize a satirical website\u2019s social networking account after one of its articles, \u201cCNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[269,270],"class_list":["post-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-facebook","tag-technology-internet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}