After Facebook started fact-checking memes on Instagram last year, the program quickly became a parody of itself and users started to mock the absurdity of fact-checking jokes and satirical content.
But Facebook has stuck with the program and today another satirical cartoon has been flagged by its fact-checkers.
The cartoon was created by the cartoonist A.F. Branco in 2015 and posted recently by Lone Conservative, a student platform that focuses on politics, campus conservatism, and culture.
The cartoon jokes about taxpayer funds going to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via the Kennedy Center.
As a result of the fact check, posts obscured on Facebook and get reduced distribution on the site.
If Facebook users try to share the post, they get an additional warning which discourages them from sharing the post and in some instances threatens them with sanctions on their own pages or website if they share it.
And if more posts from the Lone Conservative are fact-checked, Facebook will start to reduce the distribution on all its posts and potentially remove its ability to advertise, monetize, and become a news page.
Kassy Dillon, the founder of Lone Conservative, responded to the fact check by tweeting: “This cartoon is satire. It’s not meant to be taken seriously, obviously.”
Earlier this year, Facebook came under fire for fact-checking Martin Luther King Jr. memes on MLK Day.
And beyond satirical content, the fact-checking program has also been criticized for targeting photoshopped and filtered photos.
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