Facebook and Instagram censored conservatives for their American energy independence statements even though fact-checkers disagreed on essential facts underlying the censored posts.
Fact-checker Agence France-Presse (AFP) claimed the U.S. hadn’t been energy independent as part of an effort that censored the Media Research Center 27 times. Another approved fact-checker used the exact term “energy independence” that AFP employed to nit-pick the MRC.
AFP censored 27 MRC posts combined on Facebook and Instagram between Feb. 28 and March 26. Those posts quoted high-profile figures, including former President Donald Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and MRC President Brent Bozell.
Some of the posts promoted MRC’s mini-documentary “Killing Keystone.” Most of the posts had a caption pointing to Biden’s culpability in America losing its energy independence to become more reliant on foreign oil.
Facebook and Instagram slapped a “Missing Context” label on the MRC posts. Facebook in particular claimed, “Independent fact-checkers say this information is missing context and could mislead people.” Facebook and Instagram linked out to two articles by the French-government-funded fact-checker AFP which twisted facts to protect Biden.
One fact-check in particular lambasted posts that criticized Biden for undermining U.S. energy independence. That fact-check claimed that American imports of foreign oil under Trump invalidated statements supporting the notion that the U.S. was energy-independent under Trump’s presidency.