Facebook labeled The Federalist’s reporting related to Haitian migrants hunting geese in Springfield, Ohio as “false information” Tuesday based on a “fact check” from a Chinese-funded organization.
“People who repeatedly share false information might have their posts moved lower in News Feed so other people are less likely to see them,” read a warning from Facebook slapped onto an article published last week. The story featured an audio recording of a phone call to police wherein a concerned local reported four Haitian migrants each carrying a goose near downtown Springfield.
“I’m sitting here, I’m riding on the trail, I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I see a group of Haitian people, there was about four of ’em, they all had geese in their hand,” the caller told the public services dispatcher in the audio recording. “I’m time crunching here, and I saw that, I’m like, ‘Yeah this has got to be reported.’”
The recording of the phone call was embedded in the story and can be listened to below:
Facebook, however, suppressed the story based on an independent “fact check” by a group called Lead Stories, which is funded by tech elites in Silicon Valley and Beijing. Meta and the Chinese-owned company ByteDance pay Lead Stories to fact check stories on their platforms.
“Police Audio Does NOT Confirm Haitians Hunting Geese In Springfield, Ohio — No Verifying Evidence,” Tuesday’s headline read.
The so-called “fact check” faulted the story for implying “the audio recording of
