https://www.planetebook.com/1984/
It was expected that Newspeak would have finally superseded Oldspeak
(or Standard English, as we should call it)
by about the year 2050.
The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits, proper to the devotees of Ingsoc
but to make all other modes of thought impossible.
BMJ, past record
History of a news blog
https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/history-of-the-bmj
Facebook versus the BMJ: when fact checking goes wrong
https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o95
Facebook and the gatekeepers of international fact checking
Relating to Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635
Second highest “Altmetric” score of all time across all biomedical publications
Howard Kaplan, retired dentist posted a link, private Facebook group
The investigation reported poor clinical trial research practices occurring at Ventavia, a contract research company helping to carry out the main Pfizer covid-19 vaccine trial
“The Facebook Thought Police has issued me a dire warning,”
“Facebook’s ‘independent fact-checker’ doesn’t like the wording of the article by the BMJ.
And if I don’t delete my post, they are threatening to make my posts less visible.
Obviously, I will not delete my post . . . If it seems like I’ve disappeared for a while, you’ll know why.”
Over the past two months the journal’s editorial staff have been navigating the opaque appeals process without success, and still today their investigation remains obscured on Facebook.
The experience has highlighted serious concerns about the “fact checking”
third party providers on behalf of Facebook,
the resulting censorship of information.
Other FB users
unable to share
“Missing context . . . Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people.”
Readers were directed to a “fact check” performed by Lead Stories
“debunking fake news as it happens.”
A Pfizer spokesperson said that the company’s investigation “did not identify any issues or concerns that would invalidate the data or jeopardize the integrity of the study.”
No errors found
the Lead Stories article not identifying anything false or inaccurate.
Lead Stories did not mention that the investigation was externally peer reviewed,
At the time of going to press Ventavia had not responded to The BMJ’s repeated requests for information.
Pfizer told The BMJ, actions were taken to correct and remediate where necessary.”
FDA stated that it was unable to answer The BMJ’s questions, “as it is an ongoing matter.”
Wider problem
Instagram, like Facebook, is owned by the parent company Meta.
A Cochrane spokesperson said that in October its Instagram account was “shadowbanned” for two weeks
“when other users tried to tag Cochrane, a message popped up saying @cochraneorg had posted material that goes against ‘false content’ guidelines”
Jillian York, director for international freedom of expression, Electronic Frontier Foundation
I worry about the amount of power placed in the hands of these third party groups,
There’s no accountability structure.
There’s no democratic process to this.
Facebook and some traditional media are reasonably concerned about vaccine misinformation
but have swung so far in the opposite direction as to potentially shut down legitimate questions about major corporations like Pfizer
https://twitter.com/LeadStoriesCom/status/1472929863040438287
(Paul Thacker, the author of The BMJ’s investigation)
Kamran Abbasi, The BMJ’s editor in chief
“We should all be very worried that Facebook, a multibillion dollar company, is effectively censoring fully fact checked journalism that is raising legitimate concerns about the conduct of clinical trials.
why is Facebook acting in this way?
What is driving its world view?
Is it ideology?
Is it commercial interests?
Is it incompetence?
Users should be worried that, despite presenting itself as a neutral social media platform, Facebook is trying to control how people think under the guise of ‘fact checking.’”