Facebook labels Seymour Hersh's reporting ‘false’
The US social media giant has cited counterclaims by “independent fact-checkers” from Norway and Ukraine | Facebook has been criticized after opting to label reports by US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh as “false.” Hersh has made claims about American involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and the alleged theft of US aid by Kiev, although the social media giant said “fact-checking” by outlets connected with Norway and Ukraine justified its use of the label. ● Hersh claimed in February that last year’s sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which were built to transport gas from Russia to Germany, had been ordered by US President Joe Biden and carried out by a joint US-Norwegian team. Both nations have denied any responsibility. ● Hersh’s article on the pipeline sabotage, which he published on the platform Substack, is now flagged as “false information” by Facebook, journalist Michael Shellenberger noted on Thursday. Facebook uses third parties, which it considers independent fact-checkers, to make decisions on whether to warn users about the content of links posted on the platform. ● While Hersh’s claims are disputed, Facebook “has decided to take a side” and is “censoring” the veteran journalist, Shellenberger argued. The fact-checker in this case was Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. On March 14, the organization reprinted an article by Faktisk.no, a media watchdog which counts NRK as among its partners. The watchdog claimed that, based on open source data, Hersh was mistaken about the alleged involvement of Norwegian Navy ships in the Nord Stream sabotage. “Whether Hersh is wrong or right, his reporting should be debated publicly, not censored,” insisted Shellenberger, who recently helped expose social media censorship as part of the Twitter Files.