Social media fact-checkers are destroying good science

^{Via American Thinker}

In 1999, then–attorney general Janet Reno empaneled a special counsel to investigate the 1993 Waco siege after learning that the FBI had misled her about the use of pyrotechnic rounds fired during the standoff's last day. The Special Counsel (predictably) found no evidence of government complicity in civilian deaths, and investigators like me and several colleagues, who'd tested weapons, observed infrared video, and calculated relevant geometries before coming to the opposite conclusion, wondered whether our diligent efforts had been in vain. A few years following, I penned a critique of the deeply flawed science underpinning the special counsel's results. Now, nearly two decades later, I can see how amazing it was that an investigation was conducted at all. For I doubt whether it would have gone forward in these days of social media, when Facebook and Twitter rise above all, dominating the scene like Mt. Everest, their fact-checkers occupying positions of consequence well above their native levels of experience and renown. That's what it seems like to me, as I've not seen the names and résumés of fact-checkers who pin "fake news" on the conclusions of a researcher such as, for example, Li-Meng Yan, M.D., Ph.D. Conspiracy theory! False information! Unsubstantiated! blare the warning notices from my shaded Facebook posts sharing Dr. Yan's work, which also encourage me to check "reputable" sources (like the WHO) for the real deal. In the old days, we who challenged official narratives were also called crazy, conspiracists, and right-wing extremists. The difference, then and now? We didn't risk being deplatformed — i.e., canceled, as no all-encompassing "free speech" platform existed back then. Today, Facebook's faceless fact-checkers screech into the faces of science at every turn. Their shrill cacophonies influence the narrative. False information. Umm, no. I think I'll sit this one out. After all, who needs scientists when you have Facebook fact-checkers?... Full Story By Barbara G. Grant @ American Thinker