Guest Post by John Stossel
I just sued Facebook.
I didn’t want to sue. I hate lawsuits. I tried for a year to reach someone at Facebook to fix things, but Facebook wouldn’t.
Here’s the problem: Facebook uses “independent fact-checkers” to try to reduce fake news on their site.
That’s a noble goal.
Unfortunately, at least one Facebook “fact-checker” is a climate-alarmist group that cleverly uses its Facebook connections to stop debate.
Facebook is a private company. It has every right to cut me off.
But Facebook does not have the right to just lie about me, yet that’s exactly what Facebook and its “fact-checker” did. That’s defamation, and it’s just wrong.
My video this week shows videos that Facebook throttled.
The defamation started with the fact-checker, a group called Climate Feedback. They didn’t like that my video reported facts suggesting that government mismanagement probably played a bigger role in causing California’s wildfires than climate change.
Climate Feedback got Facebook to censor this as “misleading” and link to a page that still declares the following quote misleading: “Forest fires are caused by poor management. Not by climate change.”
As if that were something I said.
But I didn’t! I never said that.
In fact, I said: “Climate change has made things worse. California has warmed 3 degrees.”
I’ve worked at NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox. All would have fired me if I falsely attributed a quote!
I emailed Climate Feedback’s editor. She didn’t respond. But two of three scientists listed as their “reviewers” agreed to interviews.
Stefan Doerr of Swansea University surprised me by saying he’d never even watched my video!
“If this is implying that we have reviewed the video,” said Doerr, “this is clearly wrong.”
Another reviewer, Zeke Hausfather of The Breakthrough Institute, hadn’t seen the video either. “I certainly did not write a Climate Feedback piece reviewing your segment.”
After he watched it, I asked, “Is (misleading) a fair label?”
“I don’t necessarily think so,” he replied. “While there are plenty of debates around how much to emphasize fire management versus climate change, your piece clearly discussed that both were at fault.”
Still, neither Climate Feedback nor Facebook will change their smear.
Then things got worse. I re-aired a video on climate change myths titled “Are We Doomed?”
Three climate scientists argue that we are not “doomed” because we can adapt to climate change. They invited climate alarmists to debate them. None would.
Climate Feedback got Facebook to throttle that video, too, and declare it “partly false.” Why?
Only one of their reviewers agreed to an interview.
Patrick Brown of San Jose State University didn’t like that my video suggests America can adjust to rising sea levels. He claimed sea levels could rise 200 feet.
“You’re citing an extreme,” I point out. “The (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) doesn’t consider that likely.”
“I don’t know if they assess sea level rise out to 1,000 years,” he responds.
They don’t.
It’s absurd that Facebook lets Climate Feedback censor me over something that might happen in 1,000 years.
Climate Feedback also cited my video for questioning the claim that hurricanes have gotten stronger.
But Brown, Climate Feedback’s own reviewer, said, “That’s wrong that you were criticized for saying that. … The IPCC (doesn’t) claim that (hurricanes) … are increasing.”
Later, Brown told us I was cited for “omission of contextual information, rather than specific ‘facts’ being ‘wrong.'”
So, their “fact-check” wasn’t about actual facts?
Still, they rated my video “partly false,” which Facebook defines as content that “includes some factual inaccuracies.” My video did not contain any factual inaccuracies, and they know it.
Climate Feedback and its parent group, Science Feedback, use Facebook to censor lots of responsible people, such as science writers John Tierney, Michael Shellenberger and Bjorn Lomborg.
Facebook has every right to choose who can use its platform.
But Facebook does not have a legal right to knowingly and recklessly lie about what I say. That’s defamation.
I hope my lawsuit will make them think twice about doing it again — to me or to anyone else.
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Good luck with your suit, hope you get some of Z’s billions!
When will people finally realize that this is not a place where legality matters any more? I mean the whole world.
Any of us who have tried to fight the powerful people in the room on a legal principle already realize that, Svarga.
How do you pronounce Svarga?
I just wondered if it might be Zzzz-Var -guh and it was just curiosity of the cat-killing variety that made me ask.
I like Zvarnishguh Lookuhatthis better.
My husband and I discussed the military issues before us and after talking through all the commanders we both had could come up with at least a half-dozen who were like Milley… willing to sell out corps and comrades to get themselves promoted.
Many times we were both disappointed to discover that complaints to those up the chain were either ignored or answered with punitive action.
This is not the version of TEOTWAWKI I signed up for, but I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.
And like-minded patriots would always be welcomed at least for a time and a half.
Or so.
Just kidding. You would pronounce it like this: स्वर्ग
LOL!
Not true at the lower levels…this lawsuit will prove annoying for FB and could set a nasty precedent for them…
Not true. Facebook has the power of the government as well as the money behind them. They are part of the “gang.”. Even if there was a bullshit show trial, they could keep it in the court system for years to where the person bringing the lawsuit would be dead. If the Laviathan made it a good show and he won and was awarded a huge sum, good luck on collecting because, again, the person initiating the lawsuit will be long dead before collection. There is NO rule of law anymore for the peon.
Oh yeah? I just set a unicorn trap. Let’s see who gets meaningful results first.
Sure, let’s all pretend the aim of censorship is upholding accuracy.
What a Kweerfag.
It’s very, very, very important that the hapless goyim keep hearing this tripe repeated, so that eventually they will internalize it and offer no objections when the dot Guv openly instructs ‘private businesses’ which they heavily subsidize to censor and shut your lyin’ peasant mouth for good, asshole. It’s a private company! They have every right! Yeah, ok Jew.
You’re an industry whore and an insider, got it.
Do you get paid every time you repeat the programming, like the Carl’s Jr. guy from Idiocracy?
Oh no! Not defamation! Zounds, Scooby!
It’s censorship, is what it is. But here is this industry clown bringing a lawsuit for ‘defamation’.
This is exactly the sort of controlled opposition the ‘Republicans’ have been peddling for my whole life. Carefully crafted public performances designed to obscure the actual threat and to set the limits of the debate in a manner that ensures the real criminals get a pass.
Stossel is scum and this pointless puppet show is a giant fart in a rocket fuelled hurricane.
The article was meant to be funny?
You’re right, Ivor. Sure, it would be a tiny victory if Stossel won, but the whole “it’s a private company” proposition is bullshit. Once a social media company reaches 90% market penetration, it is effectively a monopoly. Sure, Rumble, Odysee and Bitchute are alternatives to YouTube, but it’s not like buying a screwdriver from Bob’s Tools instead of Acme Tools. Posting a video on a site that only gets 1/2% of YouTube’s views effectively means it’s invisible. Especially if Twitter and Facebook don’t let you link to it. Who is Facebook’s competition? My Space?
These companies should be prohibited from censoring anything, just like the phone company can’t prohibit you from speaking what’s on your mind. Of course, expecting government to fix it is no longer reasonable.
Government edict to social media to tackle “misinformation” (censorship) qualifies as fascism, or corporate statism.
Good analysis. Stossel is a tool.
Maybe.
But Fartbook is even bigger scum. Enemy of my enemy … mkay?
I’d donate a C-note to Satan if he sued FB.
The world is being built back better as a bigger lie couched in even less truth.
This is Jodi Shaw’s update on her lawsuit against Smith College about the Library Rap termination.
Think about spending the last 8 months pursuing legal channels like Stossel suggests above.
There is no justice; there is only pursuit of justice and the race is getting longer and longer.
Like Mark Steyn says of his legal struggles with Michael Mann- “The process is the punishment”.
There is no justice
There is always justice.
When it seems there is no justice, that just means it is now extrajudicial.
If people are unwilling to mete out their own justice, they have accepted that result.
Separation – peacefully ideally, but one way or the other, is the ONLY way this will end. The rule of law is dead.
Absolutely right MrLiberty.
Texas is in the process of declaring independence and seceding from DC, and the rest of the states.
Hopefully, most of the “red” states will do the same, or some might join together to form new constitutional republics.
It is up to We The People. No one in a position of power / authority is going to help us.
Not happening. Been discussed ad naseum as to why.
Separation of whom from what? You mean geographically? Or “us” versus “them”? Or some sort of mental separation from the outer world?
Wait till you figure out who owns the “fact checkers”…
Why is anyone still on Facebook?
And: https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/29/democrats-latest-3-5-trillion-spending-spree-includes-1-3-billion-media-bailout/
Sorry answer, but the marketing ability to a select group of folks keeps me begrudgingly returning. Other options are ineffective. We offer a service that has a very select customer base and the “groups” are the ideal location to target the “right” potential customers. Flame away…..
Still bowing the knee to the “climate” cult though.
Stossel deserves what he got, like the man who sticks his hand in an alligator’s mouth.
can’t you just file multiple libelous civil lawsuits in small claims courts in multiple counties, no attorneys for the opposition would bother to show up, you’d win by default, then sell the liens to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar, a nice side hustle for retirement..
Doesn’t work that way. Go back to the drawing board.
John Stossel has not yet realized that the left is not just wrong but that they are evil. Legal and intellectual dialogue with them is a waste of time. They will do whatever it takes to defeat their opposition morals,, ethics and reason do not apply to them. There is only one way to defeat them and it is not with talk and logic or appeals to morals.