Recently, I released a video that called California’s fires “government fueled.”

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A few days later, Facebook inserted a warning on my video: “Missing Context. Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead.”

Some of my viewers now feel betrayed. One wrote: “Shameful, John … what happened to you!!? Your reporting was always fair … [but] your … fires story was so … unfair, even Facebook tagged it.” . . .

Worse, Facebook says that because my video is labeled misleading, it will show my content to fewer people. . . .

I confronted the fact-checkers. That’s the topic of my newest video.

Facebook‘s “fact check” links to a page from a group called Climate Feedback that claims it sorts “fact from fiction” about climate change.

It posted this complaint about my video: “Forest fires are caused by poor management. Not by climate change.” It calls that claim “misleading.” . . .

But I never said that! In my video, I acknowledged: “Climate change has made things worse. California has warmed 3 degrees over 50 years.”

I don’t know where Climate Feedback got its quote. Made it up? Quoted someone else?

Facebook lets activists restrict my videos based on something I never said.

Now, Facebook is a private company that can censor anything it wants. I understand the pressure it feels. All kinds of people demand that Facebook ban posts they don’t like.

There’s no way Facebook can police everything. The site carries billions of posts.

I wish it’d just let the information flow. People will gradually learn to sort truth from lies.

But to please politicians, Facebook now lets other people censor its content. Mark Zuckerberg told Congress, “We work with a set of independent fact-checkers.”

That’s how Climate Feedback got its power. Facebook made it a fact-checker.

Facebook says I can appeal its throttling of my video, but my appeal must go to Climate Feedback, possibly the very activists who’d made up quotes from me.

I tried to appeal. I emailed Nikki Forrester, Climate Feedback’s editor. She didn’t respond. But two of the three scientists listed as reviewers agreed to interviews.

The first was Stefan Doerr of Swansea University.

When I asked why he smeared me based on something I never said, he replied, “I’ve never commented on your article.”

That was a shock. He hadn’t seen my video.

(Excerpt from The Daily Signal. Article by John Stossel. Photo Credit: Unsplash.)

Share your thoughts on what he had to say about fake fact-checking. . .