Opinion polls and polling are to opinions and intentions what fact checkers are to facts. And most of us have had experience with fact checkers on social media.
They are both political tools and instruments designed to subtly nudge and frame thinking, forge and drive overarching narratives and boost confidence or demoralise and discourage, depending on whose polling for whom.
Last year, Facebook admitted exactly that, that in a law suit that their fact checkers were simply giving an opinion.
“..Facebook finally admitted the truth: The “fact checks” that social media use to police what Americans read and watch are just “opinion.”
That’s thanks to a lawsuit brought by celebrated journalist John Stossel, which has exposed the left’s supposed battle against “misinformation” as a farce.
Stossel posted a pair of videos that touched the third rail of liberal politics — climate change. Neither questioned whether climate change is real, but each talked about other issues, namely forest management and using technology to adapt.
Yet the third party that Facebook contracts to review these pieces, Science Feedback, flagged them as “false,” or our favorite, “lacking context.”
Why? Science Feedback didn’t like Stossel’s “tone.” That is, you can’t write anything about climate change unless you say it’s the worst disaster in the history of humanity and we must spend trillions to fight it.
For this, Facebook bans or minimizes Stossel’s reporting, depriving him of readers and revenue…”