It is April 1 which means the news consumer must be extra aware for hijinks, tomfoolery, and other assortments of fake news. While some may have great fun with tales of pitchers who can throw 168 mile an hour fastballs while wearing a hiking boot on one foot and being barefoot on the other, the fact-checkers that are part of Facebook’s anti-disinformation campaign may beg to differ.
Facebook’s program of third-party fact-checkers exists, so they tell us, to prevent the spread of fake news and disinformation, to save democracy, and hold the liars, spinsters, exaggerators, and satirists accountable. On this April Fool’s Day, we have collected a series of headlines from Facebook’s fact-checking partners at PolitiFact, USA Today, AP, Factcheck.org, Reuters, AFP, and Lead Stories from the first three months of 2024. Your task is to go through the…
