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Mid-Day Digest · February 19, 2026

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“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”

THE FOUNDATION

“The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.” —Noah Webster (1788)

IN TODAY’S DIGEST

EXECUTIVE NEWS SUMMARY

The Editors

  • U.S. moves military toward Iran: A massive U.S. military buildup is underway in the Middle East with Iran in the crosshairs. The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group had already moved into the region, but now the USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest warship ever constructed, has reached the Mediterranean and is moving toward Iran. Numerous Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers are in the region, along with Independence-class littoral combat ships and at least one nuclear submarine. Aircraft, including Stratotankers, AWACS, and F-22s, have been traversing Europe in that direction in such numbers that tracking software has started to fall behind. Trump administration officials have been strategically cagey about their plans for the buildup, but Iran has been encouraged to “make a deal” in the ongoing diplomatic talks. All necessary forces for a possible action will be in place by mid-March, a senior official said.
  • The Andrew formerly known as Prince arrested: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of King Charles III, received a 66th birthday surprise — he was arrested. The ex-prince is further embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, as he is charged with forwarding confidential trade documents to Epstein. Andrew was taken into custody at his Sandringham Estate in eastern England early Thursday and faces possible life imprisonment for public office misconduct. He was reported to the police earlier this month following the release of the Epstein files. King Charles conveyed his “deepest concern” over the arrest but stated that the “law must take its course.” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “One of the core principles in our system is that everybody is equal under the law and nobody is above the law.” He’s happy to hold the white British royals accountable for misconduct but allow Muslim Pakistani rape gangs to roam free.
  • Bhattacharya to head CDC temporarily: National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has been tapped by the Trump administration to act as the temporary head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after former Acting Director Jim O’Niell’s exit. Bhattacharya gained prominence early in the COVID pandemic when he coauthored the Great Barrington Declaration, which criticized the government’s overly aggressive, pseudo-scientific response to the pandemic. Bhattacharya will remain NIH director as the Trump administration seeks a permanent CDC director, who must be confirmed by the Senate. Donald Trump’s first CDC director, Susan Monarez, served for only a month before resigning in opposition to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s vaccine policy.
  • GOP sues to stop VA Dems’ gerrymandering: A group of Republicans filed a lawsuit against Virginia Democrats’ redistricting ballot referendum, seeking an emergency motion to stop the measure ahead of the March 6 early voting date. The lawsuit contends that Democrats have violated state law and used misleading language in pushing their blatantly partisan redistricting map that fails to represent Virginia’s near-even voter split. National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson observed, “Virginia Democrats are ignoring their own Constitution and trying to rig the system in their favor.”
  • CNN “documentary” will frame Kirk’s memorial as a radicalizing event: CNN’s Pamela Brown announced this week a documentary expected to air this weekend on how Charlie Kirk’s assassination became a “rallying call” for Christian nationalism. “Christian nationalism” is a deliberate effort to turn Christian citizenship into a slur that can be used against the Right. That, of course, gives away CNN’s game. This is not a hard-hitting documentary meant to highlight the grief the Christian Right felt over Kirk’s murder and how many are feeling led to live up to his example; it is a propaganda piece meant to turn its audience against the idea of Christian nationalism. A clip from the documentary shows Professor Matthew Taylor casting doubt on the persecution of Christians … while discussing Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
  • Mamdani shifts gears, restarts homeless encampment sweeps: During his campaign, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani blasted his predecessor, Eric Adams, for his policy of clearing out homeless encampments in the city. Upon taking office, Mamdani immediately suspended such sweeps, calling them inhumane. However, just over a month into the post, and following the death of at least 19 individuals due to cold exposure, Mamdani is changing his tune. On Wednesday, he announced that he is reauthorizing the sweeps, though he noted they would not be carried out by the police but by the city’s homeless services department. Coalition for the Homeless executive director David Giffen criticized the decision, arguing, “When a city worker shows up and throws out all your belongings, you’re not going to trust that person the next time they show up offering you a place to sleep inside.”
  • Trans Bill of Rights: Once upon a time, the 10 rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights were considered applicable to all Americans. Today, in an era when the Left is pushing “identity groups” rather than patriotism, that is no longer the case. That’s why House Democrats have introduced the “Trans Bill of Rights.” The bill itself is vague, aiming only to expand transgender access to public “services” and “accommodations.” Despite claiming to ask for “equal access,” what this bill truly wants to enshrine in law is the right of a perverted man in a dress to enter protected women’s spaces. Additionally, it would require institutions to play along with the transgender fetish and taxpayers to pay for gender reassignment surgeries. Under the Trump administration, this bill is expected to be dead in the water, but it establishes the playbook for the next Democrat administration.
  • NYU Langone and Baystate Health get rid of “gender-affirming care”: If you can’t appeal to their conscience, appeal to their wallets. That’s the motto behind the Trump administration’s policies that have now led to the termination of NYU Lagone and Baystate Health’s gender mutilation. Baystate, the largest healthcare system in western Massachusetts, and Lagone, a major Manhattan hospital, were not convinced by the Cass Review and subsequent banning of “gender-affirming” surgeries in the UK. Nor were they convinced by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Medical Association’s statements that no “gender-affirming” care should be given to minors. But once the secretary of Health and Human Services announced that their Medicaid and Medicare funding would be cut off, they ended their evil practices posthaste.
  • High school trans wrestler accused of sexual assault drops out of girls state tourney: A male high school wrestler who identifies as a “transgender girl” and has been accused of sexually assaulting a female competitor during a match has withdrawn from the Washington State girls wrestling championship tournament. State authorities have yet to announce whether charges will be raised against this individual. A Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association spokesperson explained that the male athlete was “replaced by an alternate from the same WIAA District qualifying event.” The girl accusing him of sexual assault is not the alternate competitor.
  • Dispatches from Oakland: In Oakland, California, no one is above being targeted by the criminals — not even the mayor. A thief reportedly stole Mayor Barbara Lee’s car keys from her office and, two days later, returned to steal the car. The mayor’s abandoned black SUV was later discovered nearby in Vallejo, California. The Oakland Police Department has yet to locate the thief. Apparently, Oakland has the highest auto theft rate in the country, with 9,914 motor vehicle thefts in 2024, according to FBI data. Its overall crime rate was also four times the national average in 2024, likely due to the fact that the Oakland Police Department is suffering from a severe shortage of officers. Even the Soros-backed Oakland DA wasn’t exempt from brazen burglars who broke her SUV window to steal her laptop. Ironically, though, she claims she “doesn’t feel unsafe” living there.

Headlines

  • Judge rules that authorities can’t re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia (Townhall)
  • Trump “taking an interest” in social media bans for teens (NY Post)
  • Ex-South Korean President Yoon gets life sentence (Washington Times)
  • Thief breaks into Oakland mayor’s office, steals her car (Not the Bee)
  • Eight dead, one missing in Lake Tahoe avalanche tragedy (NY Post)

The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.

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FEATURED ANALYSIS

Zuckerberg Dodges and Weaves in Liability Case

Nate Jackson

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously testified before Congress about the addictive nature of social media and the effect it has on kids and teens. Yesterday, for the first time, the Facebook founder testified before a jury in a liability lawsuit in Los Angeles on the same subject.

Our Emmy Griffin explained the case last week:

One plaintiff, referred to as “KGM,” is a 20-year-old who believes that social media addiction led to her psychological issues, including depression, body dysmorphic disorder, and self-harm. She began using YouTube, owned by Google, at the tender age of six and had access to Instagram, owned by Meta, at age nine. …

The trial will specifically address whether or not the jury finds Meta and Google liable for the deterioration of KGM’s mental health due to the addictive nature of their platforms.

Griffin noted that proving liability for Meta and others may be a heavy lift for several reasons, including the frequently cited Section 230. That provision in the 1996 Communications Decency Act largely shields platforms from liability for user-generated content. However, those platforms have often behaved like publishers, “fact-checking” and censoring (primarily conservative) content in a tacit admission that social media changes behavior.

We know this all too well.

As for youth, The New York Times reports, “In internal documents that surfaced in some of the [other] lawsuits [facing the company], Mr. Zuckerberg and other Meta leaders repeatedly played down their platforms’ risks to young people, while rejecting employee pleas to bolster youth guardrails and hire additional staff.”

The Daily Wire adds, “Zuckerberg bolstered his argument by noting that less than 1% of Instagram’s revenue comes from teenagers, emphasizing the demographic has limited purchasing power and is therefore less attractive to advertisers. He argued that, from a business perspective, attracting teenagers is not ‘meaningful in the short term.’”

That may be, but if a product is meant to hook adults so they spend money, it will hook kids, too, if there are insufficient guardrails in place. Teen users also soon become adult users.

On Wednesday, Zuckerberg largely stuck to his talking points, steering clear of anything that might be taken as an acknowledgment of Instagram’s addictive “qualities.” Still, he was confronted with a 2015 memo, in which the Times says he “encouraged executives to prioritize increasing the time that teenagers spend on Meta’s apps.”

Much more recently — November 2023 — Instagram head Adam Mosseri sent a memo to employees, saying, “As you are building out your 2024 plans, I’m asking that the business teams stay laser focused on 1) teens, particularly in developed markets and 2) Threads, and in that order.”

Oh.

In this particular case, Meta’s lawyers are trying to prove that KGM had a turbulent home life and that social media, including Instagram, was a coping mechanism, not the cause of her mental health issues.

It seems relevant that, in his 2024 congressional testimony, Zuckerberg turned to several families and offered what appeared to be a spontaneous apology. He told parents he was “sorry for everything you have all been through.” Maybe that was all scripted, but likely not. In any case, it wasn’t exactly an admission of guilt.

Yesterday, Zuckerberg said Instagram made a conscious decision to prioritize utility over time spent on the platform. His “basic assumption,” he explained, is that “if something is valuable, people will use it more because it’s useful to them.”

The idea that Instagram or any other social media platform isn’t actively doing everything possible to keep people scrolling and staring is absurd on its face. They go out of business if people don’t stay on the platforms, and their own internal documents belie his claim.

Ultimately, however, this is a tough case. No one wants to be on the other side of grieving parents who have lost children to suicide. No one wants to admit responsibility for harm to children.

You can say that parents should take charge of how their children use things, but as the parent of teenagers, I can tell you that, unless you keep them under lock and key, they will find ways to do dumb stuff. Heck, I was a teenager once myself.

As a Gen Xer, I grew up without any of this stuff. I learned to type on a typewriter. I didn’t even send an email until I was in college, and I got my first cellphone when my wife was pregnant with our first child. In other words, my brain was fully developed (cough, cough — I swear) by the time social media was a gleam in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.

For kids growing up in the last 20 years, however, separating fact from fiction or reality from make-believe is much harder because of social media. For example, there wouldn’t be a “transgender community” if it weren’t for Big Tech platforms.

Does that mean Meta and the rest are liable for every bad thing — or even just certain really bad things — that happens to a kid?

Some are looking to the Australian model of banning social media for kids. Some 86% of Americans want to hold platforms accountable for “predatory” social media addiction.

As for specific liability, this Los Angeles jury will go a long way to setting a precedent, one way or another.

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MORE ANALYSIS

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Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.

PODCAST

Latest PodcastPopCon #134: Rupert Lowe: “We Will Not Manage the West’s Decline”The West is in a moment of crisis, and British MP Rupert Lowe’s new political movement, Restore Britain, has, in the words of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline.”

BEST OF VIDEOS

SHORT CUTS

Race Bait

“What’s so interesting about the MAGA regime to me is they’re all white nationalists, even the brown-skinned ones, even the Latinos.” —podcaster Jennifer Welch

Shot/Chaser

Q: “I notice that when you urge people to action, you often include the word ‘peacefully.’ Is that to avoid another Jan. 6-type incident?” —CNN reporter

A: “With all due respect, it’s to avoid people like you guys saying that I’m anything but.” —right-wing activist Scott Presler

Democrat Infighting

“We did receive information suggesting that the federal government did not shut down this segment. … It is our understanding that either Mr. Colbert or CBS decided that they just didn’t want to air it. And this was because of a fear that the FCC may say something to him and that there may have been advice to just have me on.” —Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) suggesting that the Democrat establishment collaborated to support her Texas Senate primary opponent

For the Record

“CBS’s late night host wanted to deny a black woman equal time on television in the middle of an active election and with his super-Christian best friend, lied about it.” —Erick Erickson

“I, for one, am enjoying the Democrats throwing Jasmine Crockett under the bus.” —Amy Curtis

Re: the Epstein Files

“By releasing document after document, not only have victims been needlessly exposed without their consent, but we also risk applying guilt by association to anyone for the sole crime of simply being named in the files — a door that, once opened, cannot be closed.” —Ian Haworth

Climate Swindle

“Since the global warming crusade started some 30 years ago, the temperature of the planet has not been altered by one-tenth of a degree — as even the alarmists will admit. In other words, $16 trillion has been spent — a lot of people got very, very rich off the government largesse — but there is not a penny of measurable payoff.” —Stephen Moore

Belly Laugh of the Day

“We send billions of dollars to dead people and they get cashed — the checks get cashed. … We’re talking about all kinds of checks. … So I had to go pass a bill. … So far as I can tell, dead people can still vote, but they can’t cash checks because we’re not going to be sending them to them anymore.” —Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)

Leading the Way

“Success for Turning Point wasn’t beating the NFL in ratings. It was proving that an alternative halftime show was viable and that Turning Point could pull it off. It succeeded on both fronts. … There’s a lesson here for conservatives. It’s not enough to rightly point out the many things wrong with our culture and society. Conservatives must create alternatives.” —Victor Joecks

And Last…

“The ideas that the left uses to discredit the West are uniquely Western ideas. The West came up with … equal rights, tolerance, of freedom from religious domination. These are all Western ideas that now the left hurls back against us and say, ‘You’re not perfect in them.’ No, we’re not, but no other civilization is as well.” —Heather Mac Donald

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TODAY’S MEME

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For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union.

ON THIS DAY in 1945, the U.S. Marines launched the 36-day Battle of Iwo Jima with 70,000 men attacking 21,000 Japanese who were dug in and prepared to fight to the death. Only a couple of hundred Japanese soldiers surrendered, while 19,217 Americans were wounded and 6,871 were killed in action. The Medal of Honor was awarded to 22 Marines and five Sailors, 14 of them posthumously.

“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”

Stupidocrisy: The Fact-Checkers :: By Bill Wilson

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As President Trump was signing rights-restoring executive orders and working to reverse a government deeply invested in Marxism under the moniker of “democracy,” the mainstream news media was working overtime to “fact check” everything that Trump said. A review of news media sites like CNN indicated that every claim that Trump made was being fact-checked and used as fodder to twist into threats to “democracy.”

The media still sticks to the narrative of Jan 6 being an insurrection, that the 2020 election wasn’t rigged, that COVID serums were safe and effective, and so on. They even fact-checked what Trump said about victory margins in certain states. Who fact-checks the fact-checkers?

One story actually said that there was no evidence of election fraud in California during the last presidential election. Of course, there was no evidence. If the law states that one cannot ask for voter identification, there is no way a person can be accused of falsely voting. Dead people, illegals, and criminals can all vote whether they are eligible or not. If a name is on the voter roll, that person’s name can be used to represent a vote. It is open season on legal voting fraud. But the news media doesn’t think that way—either on purpose or from ignorance. The media just reports that Trump continues to falsely claim there is election fraud when there is no evidence of election fraud.

When Trump talks about preventing the government from lawfare, he is not only talking about what the Marxist machine did to him over the past decade but also what they do to us as citizens. Government should be working for the people, not the other way around. Yet the news media continues to portray Trump as a criminal who was justly accused, tried, and convicted of crimes. There is no mention of how the courts where judges and prosecutors were predisposed to the Marxist agenda were chosen to prosecute Trump.

It has happened to pro-life advocates. It has happened to parents questioning schools on their transgender evangelism. The FBI falsely accused Trump and others of a myriad of so-called crimes. The media upholds the Marxist government in all these cases with their own set of facts.

It has gotten to the point that your freedoms—speech, religion, economic, and parental—have been so under attack that these tyrannies have become normalized.

When Trump says there are only two genders, one can hear a collective gasp. But the fact is, Genesis 5:2 says God “created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.” That’s the fact. But if you cross the Marxist media gaslighting, you will be labeled homophobic or bigot.

So here is my suggestion as an antidote to the fact-checkers in the media. Print out Trump’s inaugural speech and keep it close to where you might listen to or watch news. And when these Marxists start fact-checking, pull out that speech and read it again. You be the fact-checker using common sense. Letting the media do it is, say it with me… Stupidocrisy.

Sources:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/

Posted in The Daily Jot

The post Stupidocrisy: The Fact-Checkers :: By Bill Wilson appeared first on Rapture Ready.

Source: Stupidocrisy: The Fact-Checkers :: By Bill Wilson

Trump Settles with Meta Platforms for $25 Million After Social Media Giant Suspended His Accounts in 2021 | The Gateway Pundit

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Trump Settles with Meta Platforms for $25 Million After Social Media Giant Suspended His Accounts in 2021
President Trump and Mark Zuckerberg – Credit: Getty Images

President Donald Trump settled with Meta Platforms for $25 million after the social media giant suspended his accounts following the January 6, 2021, protests at the US Capitol.

$22 million from the settlement will go to President Trump’s presidential library. The rest will go to legal fees and to fellow plaintiffs who signed on to the case.

Meta did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement.

The Wall Street Journal reported that activity on the case after Mark Zuckerberg flew to Mar-a-Lago to dine with President Trump in November after his 2024 election victory.

Apparently, Trump brought up the lawsuit at the end of dinner with Zuckerberg in November. Then in January, Zuckerberg met with President Trump again for a full day of mediation at Mar-a-lago.

Facebook has been censoring conservative voices and the truth from reaching the masses for several years now.

Obviously, this is not the only censorship case Meta is involved in.

Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook eliminated up to 93% of traffic to top Pro-Trump websites following the 2016 election.

The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft testified to Congress on the oppressive Facebook policies back in 2018.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported in May 2022 that Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, along with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, filed a lawsuit (Missouri v. Biden) against the Biden Administration, including Biden himself, Anthony Fauci, the Department of Homeland Security, and nearly a dozen federal agencies and Secretaries.

The suit alleges a massive coordinated effort by the Deep State to work with Big Tech to censor and manipulate Americans – from average citizens to news outlets – on issues including the Hunter Biden Laptop from Hell, 2020 Election Integrity, COVID-19 origin and extent skepticism, COVID-19 vaccine skepticism, among other issues.

In June 2022, The Gateway Pundit began assisting Missouri AG Schmitt’s team and providing critical evidence of Facebook and Twitter censorship of the Gateway Pundit on all of these issues. The Missouri-Louisiana case was heard before the Supreme Court in 2024. SCOTUS sent it back to the lower court and this case is still ongoing.

Now that President Trump has reentered the White House the censorship industrial complex is on notice. This settlement to President Trump this week by Meta is likely just the beginning. The tech giants and government agents censored and silenced conservatives and independent media in the US for years. Now justice will be served.

The post Trump Settles with Meta Platforms for $25 Million After Social Media Giant Suspended His Accounts in 2021 appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Meta Unbans Multiple Pro-Life Facebook Accounts | IFA

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After promising to protect free speech moving forward, Meta unbanned several pro-life accounts. Is this a good sign for the future?

From The Daily Wire. Meta has restored several pro-life Facebook accounts just days after attorneys sent a letter demanding the social media giant do so in the wake of Meta’s recent promise to support free speech.

Do you want state prayer alerts?

The Facebook and Instagram accounts for pro-life news site LifeNews.com, LifeNews founder Steven Ertelt, and pro-life mom Abby Covington were restored this week after being suspended for months, according to a press release provided exclusively to The Daily Wire.

The move came just a week after their legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a letter to Meta calling on the platform to reverse its decision to suspend the accounts. …

In May, Ertelt found his Facebook account had been permanently disabled after he posted a video showing a doctor performing a C-section. During the procedure, the unborn child can be seen grabbing the doctor’s finger.

“An unborn baby can’t be just a clump of cells when he or she is grabbing the doctor’s hand,” read the video’s caption.

Facebook permanently disabled Ertelt’s account and informed him the post failed to follow its Community Standards on “child sexual exploitation,” his attorneys said.

Because LifeNews used Ertelt’s Facebook account to create the LifeNews Instagram account, the group’s Instagram account is effectively permanently suspended as well. …

Covington, the Christian pro-life mother of three, had her Facebook account permanently suspended after she posted about her family’s adoption journey. In her post, she described her family’s Christian faith and encouraged expecting mothers to reach out if they were thinking about putting their baby up for adoption. …

Facebook then informed her that her account did not follow its Community Standards on “human exploitation,” her attorneys said. The platform disabled her Instagram account, as well as all of her Facebook accounts, including the one for her jewelry, skincare, and makeup business. …

The ADF attorneys accused Meta of violating its free speech standards, breaching its own terms of service, and failing to uphold its promises. They had requested the company respond to their request to reinstate the pro-life accounts by January 22.

“These situations provide a litmus test for whether Meta will live up to its public announcement or continue to censor and restrict the marketplace of ideas,” the legal team wrote.

Last week, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg released a video announcing sweeping changes to his company’s content moderation policies, promising “more speech and fewer mistakes.” …

Share your prayers for the protection of free speech below.

(Excerpt from The Daily Wire. Photo Credit: Solen Feyissa on Unsplash)

Source: https://ifapray.org/blog/meta-unbans-multiple-pro-life-facebook-accounts/

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg moves away from fact-checkers | Denison Forum

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg moves away from fact-checkers
Facebook censored the content when they detected that it is a false information. (Bangkok, Thailand - March 17, 2020) By wachiwit/stock.adobe.com Meta fact-checkers

“The fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created.” That is how Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described his company’s efforts to curtail the spread of misinformation for the better part of a decade. So, instead of an army of third-party Meta fact-checkers, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will move to an X-style community notes form of moderation for most of their content.

Illegal activity, hate speech, pornography, and other clear violations of their content rules will still be taken down, but they are largely trying to move away from policing political and cultural views that are simply matters of free speech.

The news came as a welcome sign of sanity to many on the right, while those on the left tended to view it as a capitulation to the incoming Trump administration and harbinger of hate speech, conspiracy theories, and a host of other perceived ills. However, like most of the overly politicized trends in our culture today, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Zuckerberg went on to acknowledge as much, noting that there will be a “tradeoff” where “we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.” He’s decided that tradeoff is worth it, and those close to him say it reflects “an evolved return to his political origins.”

While that sentiment may sound unlikely to those who have watched Facebook grow increasingly restrictive toward views that don’t align with the mainstream or political left, Zuckerberg’s reasons ultimately matter less than the new reality they will usher in. And, in a sign that Meta’s CEO is serious about these changes, that new reality will be guided by a host of new faces as well.

What are Meta’s motivations?

The most famous of those faces is likely UFC President and CEO Dana White, who joined the Board of Directors earlier this week. White is also a close ally to Trump, and introduced the President before his speech at last year’s Republican National Convention.

However, of those Zuckerberg has brought into the fold to guide this transition, Joel Kaplan—a longtime Republican lobbyist and President George W. Bush’s former chief of staff—is likely to play the most prominent role. Kaplan was named Chief of Global Affairs and replaced Nick Clegg, a former deputy prime minister from Britain who’d been in charge of Meta’s policy and regulatory stances since 2018.

In an interview with Fox earlier this week, Kaplan stated that the third-party fact-checkers Meta employed were “well-intentioned at the outset but there’s just been too much political bias in what they choose to fact-check and how.” He also noted that much of that change has occurred over the last four years, arguing that “We saw a lot of societal and political pressure, all in the direction of more content moderation, more censorship, and we’ve got a real opportunity.”

These moves have led many to claim that Meta is simply trying to curry favor with the incoming Trump administration. If that’s the case, it seems to be working. Following Kaplan’s interview, Trump said that Meta has “come a long way.”

Meta’s ability to be an ally rather than an enemy of the government will be essential going forward given that another of Zuckerberg’s stated goals is to combat the even greater levels of censorship found in Europe, Latin America, and China. And as Parker Jones and Micah Tomasella discussed on the inaugural episode of Culture Brief—Denison Forum’s newest podcast—large parts of the world could be primed to join that fight.

Ultimately, time will tell to what extent these changes are effective and how seriously Meta’s platforms are taking the notion of letting their users moderate one another rather than doing it for them. However, this news is yet another example of how the need for discernment has seldom been higher. And that represents an important opportunity for Christians today.

Opportunities we can’t afford to waste

The desire to go back to a time when you could trust what you saw on the news and when people believed their politicians were telling them the truth remains a common refrain among many. To be sure, there was (relatively) less division in our society when people were unable to anonymously yell at strangers from around the world.

However, much of the rise in consternation over the state of public discourse today is due to our ability to know how much of what is said is either incomplete or simply not true. That we’re more aware of the lies we’re told today doesn’t mean that people lied less in previous eras. The lies were simply harder to spot because the implicit trust in media, politicians, and other authority figures was higher.

While the current state of media and social discourse is certainly filled with its pitfalls and problems, it also gives us the ability to test what we’re told to see if it’s true to a level that, in many ways, really is unique to this point in human history. Doing so takes more work, but the potential rewards are much greater as well.

As Christians empowered by the Holy Spirit, we should be better positioned than most to practice such discernment. And just think of the difference it would make if we became known as a group of people others could trust and look to for guidance.

As people who worship the God who is Truth and are tasked with sharing a message that Paul warned would be considered “folly” by those who haven’t believed (1 Corinthians 1:18), discernment is among the most essential traits for us to master. Thankfully, each day presents us with endless opportunities to do just that; opportunities we can’t afford to waste.

So the next time you get ready to open Facebook, Instagram, X, or whatever social media platform you favor, start by asking God to help you discern the truth from the lies. And be sure to say that prayer again before liking, sharing, or otherwise engaging with the content you find.

The Holy Spirit is ready and waiting to help you do just that.

Will you let him?

The latest from Denison Forum:

Quote of the day:

“Truth will ultimately prevail where pains is taken to bring it to light.” — George Washington

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Meta Backs Down from Censorship Program, Will Release Content Creators from ‘Facebook Jail’ | Christian Heritage News

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Posted at CBN:Published January 7, 2025

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram has announced it’s putting an end to its program that restricted free speech and censored messages that its “fact checkers” didn’t agree with.

The Meta company is officially scrapping its third-party fact-checking program. Instead, it’ll be shifting to a Community Notes model similar to what Elon Musk has used on his social media platform X. That method of accountability allows users to weigh in on the veracity of posts.

Meta is admitting that its third-party fact-checkers had their own biases and too much content ended up being silenced. Critics have said that all the “fact-checking” just ended up becoming a pathway for censorship.

In a post titled “More Speech and Fewer Mistakes,” Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan admitted, “…we are making too many mistakes, frustrating our users and too often getting in the way of the free expression we set out to enable. Too much harmless content gets censored, too many people find themselves wrongly locked up in ‘Facebook jail,’ and we are often too slow to respond when they do.”

Kaplan said the biases of its fact-checkers are a serious problem. “Over time we ended up with too much content being fact checked that people would understand to be legitimate political speech and debate,” he said.

And that censorship pressure didn’t just come from “independent fact-checkers.” As CBN News reported last year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the Biden White House pressured Facebook and Instagram to censor stories it didn’t like.

Continue here…

https://www.christian-heritage-news.com/2025/01/meta-backs-down-from-censorship-program.html

Mid-Day Snapshot · January 8, 2025

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 “From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”.

THE FOUNDATION

“There is no maxim in my opinion which is more liable to be misapplied, and which therefore needs elucidation than the current one that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.” —James Madison (1786)

IN TODAY’S DIGEST

EXECUTIVE NEWS SUMMARY

Thomas Gallatin, Nate Jackson, & Jordan Candler

Heartland

  • LA wildfire: Looking like something out of a Hollywood movie, the city of Los Angeles is literally on fire. Wildfires pushed by high winds engulfed the high-end neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, forcing 30,000 residents, including celebrities, to evacuate. Multimillion-dollar homes have gone up in flames. With wind speeds approaching 100 miles an hour, the wildfire has spread so quickly that people even abandoned their cars on the roadway, fleeing on foot toward the ocean. It ignited some 200 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains within an hour. As the National Weather Service noted, “This is a Particularly Dangerous Situation — in other words, this is about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather.” Flights in and out of Los Angeles International Airport are expected to be delayed or canceled. As of this morning, four major wildfires in southern California are burning. The largest is in the Pacific Palisades, which has grown to 3,000 acres and is 0% contained.
  • Virginia Democrats keep control of state legislature after special elections (Just the News)
  • The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (a.k.a. “cop city”) has been built (Hot Air)

Politics

  • Judge Cannon temporarily blocks release of Jack Smith report on Trump cases (Newsweek) | Justice Department says it plans to release only part of report for now (AP)
  • Trump petitions Supreme Court to halt sentencing in hush-money case (Newsweek)
  • Make America Grow Again: Donald Trump wants to put America First, and part of that seems to be claiming or reclaiming literal territory. But first, let’s just say for the record that his jokes about former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau being “governor” of a new American state are 100% trolling. There’s no reason to take seriously the idea of annexing Canada. What we should take seriously, however, are three other proposals: acquiring Greenland from Denmark, regaining control of the Panama Canal, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’ll introduce legislation for the Gulf renaming, but that’s just icing on the cake. The real difference makers would be Greenland and the Panama Canal. Greenland hosts America’s northernmost military base, Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base. It’s located along a strategic maritime route, and it has abundant natural resources. His play for the island may also be aimed at keeping China out. The same goes for the Panama Canal, through which an enormous amount of trade happens. The late Jimmy Carter gave it away, and Trump wants it back.
  • Humor: Trump announces plan to rename the moon “Space America” (Babylon Bee)
  • Carter lies in state: The body of America’s 39th president, Jimmy Carter, arrived in Washington, DC, on Tuesday following memorial events in his home state of Georgia. Carter’s body, in a casket draped with the U.S. flag, was moved to the U.S. Capitol via a horse-drawn carriage flanked by troops from the Army’s Old Guard. His body was placed in the Rotunda to lie in state. The funeral service for Carter will be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday. Following the service, Carter will be flown back to Georgia, where he will be buried on his property next to his wife, Rosalynn, near a willow tree.
  • Laken Riley Act passes House: All House Republicans were joined by 48 Democrats to pass the Laken Riley Act on Tuesday afternoon. It was the first bill passed by the 119th Congress. Named after the Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal alien last year, the legislation will require immigration authorities to detain illegals found guilty of theft-related crimes. Furthermore, it allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for any harm illegal aliens have caused residents. After the vote, Speaker Mike Johnson blasted most Democrat lawmakers for voting against the bill, saying, “It is hard to believe after countless horrific stories like Laken’s, ANY House Democrats would vote against deporting illegal aliens who commit violent crimes against American citizens.” The Republican-controlled House passed the bill last year, but the then-Democrat-controlled Senate never took it up. Now, with a Republican Senate, it will be a different story.

Security

  • Trump warns Hamas “all hell will break out” if it doesn’t release hostages before he takes office (NY Post)
  • Migrant shelter crime: Massachusetts Democrat Governor Maura Healey is fit to be tied after she learned that her state’s sanctuary policies, which she is so proud of, have been exploited by illegal aliens for criminal activities. After an illegal alien from the Dominican Republic was caught with nearly $1 million in drugs and an AR-15 at a temporary shelter, Healey huffed, “It’s outrageous that this individual took advantage of our shelter system to engage in criminal activity.” Following the arrest, Healey ordered an inspection of shelters, but she then blamed the problem on “our broken federal immigration system and the urgent need for Congress and the White House to act on a border security bill to prevent criminals from entering our communities.” How about not inviting people to illegally enter the U.S. and offering them protection from U.S. immigration authorities? Back in 2023, Healey was singing a different tune, boasting that illegal aliens are “drawn here because we are and proudly have been a beacon to those in need.” Following Donald Trump’s election, Healey promised to resist his immigration enforcement plan with “every tool in the toolbox.” It’s almost funny seeing Healey upset over lawlessness when she literally boasted about defending lawlessness.
  • ACLU sides with Venezuelan gang over cops: The American Civil Liberties Union is investigating the Aurora Police Department after it arrested members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, who had taken over an apartment complex in the Denver-area suburb. The ACLU’s reason has everything to do with the Aurora PD working with immigration enforcement. The ACLU is literally defending illegal aliens who are members of a violent criminal gang who kidnapped and physically abused a man and a woman whom they “bound,” “pistol-whipped,” “beat,” and “terrorized.” And these two were not the only victims of these gang members. The ACLU argues that since Colorado law restricts state law enforcement from working with federal immigration law enforcement, the arrest and detainment of these illegals should not have occurred. APD Police Chief Todd Chamberlain rejected the ACLU’s characterization of the events, calling them a “gross mischaracterization of the facts,” adding, “Colorado law does not prohibit the Aurora Police Department, or any other law enforcement agency in our state, from assisting federal officials in apprehending criminal offenders or those with federal warrants, both of which applied to the suspects involved in this crime.”
  • Man suspected of killing girlfriend week after being deported (Newsweek)
  • Biden’s last-minute cigarette ban is a boon for crime: The Food and Drug Administration is moving forward with a new rule that would lower the legal nicotine level for cigarettes, effectively banning all current commercially available cigarettes. This comes at a time when U.S. smoking rates are at an all-time low, according to Gallup polling. Indeed, even the FDA estimates that if the rule were to go into effect, it would only lower the smoking rate by a little more than 1% by the year 2100. However, it would serve as a boon for criminal organizations. As former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assistant director Richard Marianos observed, “This is a gift that Biden is giving to criminals out there, and they’re going to see it, and they’re going to capitalize on it, and there’s not a thing we’re going to be able to do except react instead of be proactive.” The window for this rule to be finalized will fall after Donald Trump has entered office, leaving it up to his administration to enforce.

Culture

  • Mike Johnson maintains House transgender bathroom ban (NBC News)
  • Gender-confused suspect charged with murder in mailman’s lunch break stabbing (Fox News)
  • Two federal death row inmates refuse Biden’s commutation (Fox News)
  • DeSantis adds conservative reformers to University of West Florida board (Tampa Bay Times)

Misc.

  • “The View” host’s husband caught up in RICO lawsuit (Daily Wire)
  • The Washington Post lays off 4% of staff (Axios)
  • Medical debt banned from credit reports (CBS News)

For the Executive Summary archive, click here.

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Follow Thomas Gallatin, Nate Jackson, and Jordan Candler on X/Twitter.

FEATURED ANALYSIS

Don’t Cry for the ‘Fact-Checkers’

Nate Jackson

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made,” Genesis 3 records. “He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’“

And with that, Satan became the first “fact-checker.” The father of lies called into question the truthfulness of God’s command to Adam and Eve. He gaslighted our first parents into believing something false by playing a semantics game about the literal and immediate consequences of disobedience.

God responded by cursing the serpent and promising to crush him.

Without taking the analogy too far, I have zero sympathy for the Leftmedia “fact-checkers” who follow in Satan’s, er, footsteps and now bitterly complain that Meta’s decision to cast them out will crush them. In fact, I confess I’ve been chuckling with schadenfreude.

I wrote about Mark Zuckerberg’s seismic announcement yesterday. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, will ditch its dozens of third-party “fact-check” partners in favor of a community notes function like Elon Musk successfully implemented on X. Zuckerberg promised other changes, too, such as revamping algorithms to quit suppressing political (read: conservative) content and moving his moderation teams from California to Texas. Those are measurable promises, and we’ll know if he breaks them.

After the great news, hilarity ensued thanks to “fact-checker” reactions yesterday.

First, “Meta’s fact-checking partners claim they were ‘blindsided’ by the company’s decision,” Wired reports, “and some say they are now scrambling to figure out if they can survive the hole this leaves in their funding.” Some “fact-checkers” are big and diverse enough to withstand the loss of revenue, but Wired adds, “One editor at a US-based fact-checking organization that works with Meta, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told WIRED that Meta’s decision ‘is going to eventually drain us out.’”

Indeed, according to a 2023 report from the Poynter Institute, the journalism nonprofit that owns PolitiFact, funding from Meta is one of the “predominant revenue streams” for the “fact-checkers.” The International Fact-Checking Network is holding an emergency meeting today to decide what to do.

Gee — insert sarcastic snicker — it sure would be a shame if any of these Orwellian thugs went out of business.

And they were “blindsided”? Well, now they know how we feel every time one of our factual or opinion posts is hit with an unexpected penalty strike on Facebook, and our page and content are subsequently suppressed even further.

Second, get a load of this New York Times headline: “Meta Says Fact-Checkers Were the Problem. Fact-Checkers Rule That False.”

“We did not, and could not, remove content,” argued FactCheck.org managing editor Lori Robertson. “Any decisions to do that were Meta’s.”

“Facts are not censorship,” huffed Poynter president Neil Brown. “Fact-checkers never censored anything. And Meta always held the cards. It’s time to quit invoking inflammatory and false language in describing the role of journalists and fact-checking.”

Those assertions are utterly obtuse. No, “fact-checkers” don’t choose what Facebook does with their “fact-checks.” According to Meta, “Fact-checkers do not remove content, accounts or Pages from Facebook.” Yes, Meta set up the strike system and suppressed content while cowardly hiding behind supposedly independent third-party organizations for justification. It’s grossly hypocritical for Zuckerberg and Meta to act like the real problem was the “fact-checkers” all along.

However, these organizations knew exactly what would happen when they submitted their work to Facebook, so they can hardly claim ignorance or innocence regarding the censorship that took place.

Veteran journalist Mark Hemingway left the now-defunct Weekly Standard after it became part of Facebook’s army of “fact-checkers.” He recounted a story about a young journalist at the Standard who expressed discomfort in knowing that Facebook would “kill 80 percent of the global internet traffic” to any article he flagged. In response to PolitiFact rejecting any responsibility for the results, Hemingway asserted that they “knew full well they were providing the bullets for Facebook’s gun, and they were happy to do it because they liked who Facebook was aiming at.”

That goes to the obvious bias of these ostensibly objective journalists. Despite insisting they are “nonpartisan” and unbiased, the entire “fact-checking” genre was created as a way to protect the Leftmedia’s monopoly on public opinion in the face of rising conservative media. The first “fact-checkers” appeared more than 20 years ago, and the vast majority of their targets have always been conservative outlets and public figures. They created a Praetorian Guard for the Democrat Party by taking a position of supposed authority from which to exercise unearned power as the arbiters of truth. They gained power by partnering with social media.

That, in turn, leads back to the problem of money. “News organizations such as PolitiFact, USA Today, and, yes, The Weekly Standard, participating in this program were taking a large sum from one of the country’s largest and most influential corporations,” Hemingway noted. “This was a massive conflict of interest, considering these same publications were also tasked with covering Facebook neutrally when it came up in the news. Which was a lot.”

Not only that, but many news organizations (including our own) depend at some level on web traffic coming from Facebook, meaning, as Hemingway put it, “they had you over a barrel in multiple ways.”

In short, the “fact-checkers” lie. They lie about what conservatives say, and they lie about their role in Meta’s censorship regime.

As for Meta, the changes are, to say the least, welcome. This could and should begin a massive shift in the media landscape. Many are debating whether Zuckerberg’s announcement represents a genuine change of heart or is just an obsequious attempt to save his business. I can’t read his mind, of course, but I believe Zuckerberg actually prefers a more open platform. He was browbeaten into accepting the censorship regime after Donald Trump won in 2016, and he resented where it (predictably) led. I could be wrong, but even if it’s merely a business decision, the benefits should be tangible.

Still, Zuckerberg’s mea culpa isn’t worth much. We can’t recover the last five years of suppressed traffic or make back the money we lost because perhaps millions of people never saw our content. The demise of the “fact-checkers” would be a welcome event, but the damage they caused us and numerous other conservative organizations in recent years may be incalculable and certainly irrecoverable — at least unless Zuckerberg’s regret becomes restitution.

As for the “fact-checkers,” as far as I’m concerned, they can rot with their father, Satan.

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.

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MORE ANALYSIS

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.

BEST OF VIDEOS

SHORT CUTS

For the Record

“So, Zuckerberg — the CEO of Facebook and Meta — admits that right-wing censorship exists on his platform, and some of you STILL deny it? If you won’t believe it straight from the CEO, there’s no helping you.” —Riley Gaines

“If Zuckerberg means even half of what he says … we may well be seeing a genuine shift in how Silicon Valley regards free speech, dissent, and pluralism.” —Charles C.W. Cooke

“The media, having lost the trust of the public, formed ‘fact-checkers’ to act as gatekeepers of information. The fact-checkers were not fact-checkers but ideological enforcers. They once bullied Facebook into embracing them. Now that Facebook is done with them, they are enraged that they can no longer serve as gatekeepers.” —Erick Erickson

“In no way should Zuckerberg be applauded for claiming to stop some of his draconian censorship that has nearly destroyed free speech in America. There need to be sincere apologies, massive restitution, transparency in the removal of filters that advantage left-wing press, etc.” —Mollie Hemingway

“Calling them ‘fact checkers’ has always been misinformation.” —Frank J. Fleming

Tongue-in-Cheek

“I didn’t realize Facebook was still on.” —Dave Rubin

Non Compos Mentis

“Meta Says Fact-Checkers Were the Problem. Fact-Checkers Rule That False.” —The New York Times

Hot Air

“The changes announced by Meta today are very much a MAGA makeover.” —CNN’s Brian Stelter

Coup de Grâce

“If those hostages aren’t back … by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East. And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone.” —Donald Trump

Spend-o-Rama

“We are three months into the 2025 fiscal year and on pace to spend an all-time-high $7 trillion and borrow $2 trillion. If we stay on this course, the federal budget could reach $10 trillion over the next decade.” —Stephen Moore

Political Futures

“Trump didn’t start a new party. He took over and remade America’s existing right-of-center vehicle. If some Trump-like future leader in Britain or Europe can do likewise, the result could be a generational realignment similar to the one America has seen.” —Daniel McCarthy

“We must never forget that the contrived prosecutions and lawfare against Trump were launched with the goal of putting him in prison where the left hoped he would die. And yet with God’s protection, he persevered and prevailed, giving us one more chance to save the country.” —Gary Bauer

Upright

“The iterations of Islam that prompt the murder of Westerners and seek to destroy our civilization are unacceptable. … It doesn’t make you intolerant to have no tolerance for those who wish to murder you.” —Victor Joecks

“The FBI should infiltrate and take down pro-terrorist groups and mosques, not parents at school board meetings. Stop allowing people who hate America to immigrate here.” —Victor Joecks

“The Old Testament model of restitution would not only force the offender to pay back the victim for money or property that was stolen, but in itself invokes the notion of personal responsibility for one’s crimes. The victim in these circumstances is not so much the state, as the individual.” —Cal Thomas

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MEMES & CARTOONS

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For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union.

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For more of today’s cartoons, visit the Cartoons archive.

 “From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”.

10 Totally Based Changes Mark Zuckerberg Is Bringing To Facebook | Babylon Bee

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As though scales fell from Mark Zuckerberg’s eyes, the tech magnate unveiled a set of changes that will be made to Facebook’s content restriction policies in the coming weeks.

The Babylon Bee obtained an advanced list of 10 of the improvements to promote freedom of expression:

  1. “Poking” will be brought back: This was once eliminated due to complaints from lame losers who did not consent to being poked.
  2. Sharing a minion meme will now be a bannable offense: The long national nightmare is finally over.
  3. It will now be impossible to unfriend Donald Trump: Just like in real life.
  4. It will now be permissible to share news stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop: Better late than never.
  5. The algorithm will occasionally show you posts that actually do interest you: Not all the time. But even doing it some of the time is a huge improvement.
  6. Only half of the recommended pages to follow will be Russian bots: The other half will be lizard people.
  7. Your crazy uncle’s posts about his UFO abduction are going to be visible again: Now this is good content.
  8. The loading screen will be the dancing baby gif: Not because it’s based or anything, but just because it’s fun.
  9. You will now be required to “like” the posts from your dad that show an upside-down picture with the caption “Meanwhile, in Australia”: It’s time for Facebook to bring families back together again.
  10. Any post promoting seed oils will result in automatic suspension: America is back, baby.

What other changes can Mark Zuckerberg implement to Make Facebook Great Again? Leave them in the comments below.

Thanks to clown world, it’s been a great year for comedy. Here are some of our top-performing sketches of 2024!

Check out our top videos!

https://babylonbee.com/news/10-facebook-changes-mark-zuckerberg-is-bringing-to-facebook/

Meta Drops Bogus “Fact-Checking” Program After Years of Targeting, Blacklisting, Censoring, and Eliminating Top Conservative Pages from Facebook | The Gateway Pundit

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Meta Drops Bogus “Fact-Checking” Program After Years of Targeting, Blacklisting, Censoring, and Eliminating Top Conservative Pages from Facebook
Facebook destroyed The Gateway Pundit’s Facebook page along with several other top conservative performers for years. Meta says they are going to change that now that all of the prominent conservative pages have been eliminated.

On Tuesday, Meta, the company that owns both Facebook and Instagram, announced it is discontinuing its third-party fact-checking program after years of censoring conservative speech. In its place, Meta will adopt a user-generated “Community Notes” system, similar Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.

Mark Zuckerberg announced the change on Facebook. He says he wants to restore free expression. Hmm.

This shift will begin in the United States, where Meta will terminate its collaborations with so-called independent fact-checkers. The decision stems from the belief that these expert fact-checkers introduced their own biases into the process, leading to an excessive amount of content being fact-checked.

For years now, The Gateway Pundit has been speaking out on this unconstitutional assault on Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.

After the 2016 election, Facebook began making algorithm changes to ensure conservative news was no longer an option for their users. Two studies released in March of 2018 confirm this. A study by The Outline Organization found conservative publishers were hit the hardest by Facebook algorithm changes — and that The Gateway Pundit was hit the hardest.

In February, Facebook launched another algorithm change to its platform. With the changes, our traffic dwindled even further.

We weren’t the only ones to be affected. The algorithmic change caused President Donald Trump’s engagement on Facebook posts to plummet a whopping 45%.

A Western Journal study in March 2018 revealed the same startling statistics. Further, this study found that liberal publishers actually saw an increase in traffic.

A June 2018 Gateway Pundit study of top conservative news outlets found that Facebook had eliminated 93% of traffic to top conservative websites.

Facebook began eliminating conservative content after the 2016 election.

In September 2018, The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft testified in front to Congress on Facebook’s assault on free speech.

We are reposting that testimony here today.

Years later we discovered that the US government was behind much of the censorship of conservative websites.

In 2024, The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft, several prominent doctors, and Jill Hines from Louisiana brought our case on government censorship to the US Supreme Court.

SHOWTIME! Gateway Pundit at the Supreme Court TODAY for Oral Arguments in Murthy, et al v. Missouri, et al, Case No. 23-411 – The most Important Free Speech Case in American History

The case is still ongoing.

In August 2024, Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to Congress that the social media giant was subject to government censorship around stories related to COVID and the 2020 election and that he would, in the future, fight such efforts harder than he did previously.

That leads us to today, when Meta announced that they were scrapping their current censorship program that has destroyed all of the prominent conservative websites on the platform — except for a couple who were able to squeak by for some reason.

Today Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta was changing their censorship apparatus. This move does not restore the hundreds of conservative pages that were deleted, censored, and blacklisted over the years.

This story is far from over.

The post Meta Drops Bogus “Fact-Checking” Program After Years of Targeting, Blacklisting, Censoring, and Eliminating Top Conservative Pages from Facebook appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.