It appears that Mark Zuckerberg directly lied in Congressional testimony.
When questioned by AOC about Facebook’s use of the white-supremacy enabling Daily Caller as a “fact checker”, Zuckerberg stated that FB relied on the Poynter Institute’s Independent Fact-Checking Network for determining who was a legitimate “independent fact-checker”. Here is that exchange:
OCASIO-CORTEZ: Can you explain why you’ve named The Daily Caller, a publication well-documented with ties to white supremacists, as an official fact-checker for Facebook?
ZUCKERBERG: Congresswoman, sure. We actually don’t appoint the independent fact-checkers. They go through an independent organization called the Independent Fact-Checking Network that has a rigorous standard for who they allow to serve as a fact-checker.
Well, that seemed weird to me after looking at IFCN’s standards. And, well, I wasn’t the only one.
“Saying something not true” is a soft euphemism. Zuckerberg directly answered AOC’s question, directly stated something as “fact” when, well, it wasn’t. Hmmm … seems that could reasonably be called a “lie”.
Now, sadly, the Daily Caller “Check Your Fact” site/group is a signatory and has been reviewed/certified by Poynter as complying with the guidelines. Thus, it is in the list of Verified signatories of the IFCN code of principles. So, perhaps Zuckerberg ‘misspoke’ — that FB only brings on groups who make it onto the IFCN list (rather than going through IFCN).