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Do better, Facebook and Politifact

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Social media posts are sounding the alarm about a change in Illinois law that they suggest will radically undermine public safety.

“Things are gonna get crazy on January, 1, 2023,” read a Facebook post on Sept. 9. “The state of Illinois passed a bill that will go into effect on January 1, 2023, these following crimes would be considered non-detainable. Burglary, robbery, arson, kidnapping, DUI offenses, even DUI involving a fatality, most drug offenses, and even 2nd degree murder.”

But before Illinoisans start packing their bags, we advise taking a closer look at the law these posts are talking about.

In February 2021, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a sweeping 764-page criminal justice bill called the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity Act, or Safe-T Act. The law makes changes to police and court practices and detainee rights, among other things.

Part of that law, known as the Pretrial Fairness Act, will change bond court practices across the state. It would eliminate cash bail, or money paid by a defendant to get out of jail while awaiting trial. That change goes into effect Jan. 1 and will make Illinois the first state to completely do away with cash bail.

But these posts mislead by suggesting that people charged with the crimes listed cannot be detained under any circumstance.

The Facebook post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

We saw similar claims here, here, here and here.

OK, that’s all well and good, but only one of those posts was actually flagged by Facebook. The rest, including one by Turning Point USA that has 3,300 comments and has been shared 5,300 times, has not been flagged.

So, please, spare me the pat on the back, Politifact. You busted a smallish fake news site, but left intact basically the same post on a site with millions of followers.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 9:06 am

Comments

I believe that Facebook is the one that controls which posts get flagged on its platform. PolitiFact’s role appears to be limited to the actual fact-checking articles and wouldn’t decide what posts on what pages have the fact-checking context label.

Comment by Hank Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 9:17 am
Certain usual people are in utter dread that POC may get some relief from institutional racism. Says it all.

Comment by Grandson of Man Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 9:17 am
Picking on Politifact aside, I’ve been waiting my whole adult life for major media outlets to stop credulously reporting things that obvious bad faith actors say as if they are equally deserving of respect. 99% of “news” seems content to report what two different people say, and do zero effort to see whether one of those two people is brazenly lying, and has a history of brazenly lying.

Comment by Homebody Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 9:23 am
Snopes has an entire section debunking the nonsense flying around the web about the SAFE-T Act.

Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 9:27 am
Alternative facts count on the lagging of social media to debunk the falsehoods… and/or the lacking of *want*… to correct things.

The reason “Republicans”, and Trump specifically, have gone to other platforms isn’t the echo chamber “people like us”, that’s the smokescreen… it’s the opportunity to keep misinformation up longer, to allow it to spread quicker to the cult thinking, and allow the “victims” of truth to have a safe space.

When Facebook and Politifact allow misinformation quarter, that’s the danger that comes with dishonesty

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 9:34 am
Snopes info here.

Comment by Northsider Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 9:34 am
Positive info on the Safe-T Act I saw on FB: https://www.hb3653.org/

Is there a unified site compiling the counters to the misinformation?

Comment by Heather Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 9:40 am
Some people want to be fooled (mis-informed) into believing their hateful prejudices are justified.

Comment by Dotnonymous Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 9:57 am
If you want to fight the spreading of bad information, prepare for a crusade. A lot of people just hear what they want to hear. They read the headline, not the whole article. We need new tactics to spread the truth. Not sure what they are, but open to suggestions.

Comment by levivotedforjudy Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 10:20 am
This is great stuff (except how the graphic lines are jarring to my eye) on here- https://www.hb3653.org/ ,
But who is behind it? I might have missed it, but I clicked every piece of it looking for an “author”, and can’t find anything. I also tried icann, and it has all owner and contact info redacted. Given the Maxwell tweets about media literacy from the other day, it’s annoying there is no sourcing there. This makes it “gray” propaganda, we know the motive, but not the sender of this message.

Comment by Shark Sandwich Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 10:43 am
Starting to rethink my support of the Safe-T act after the McDonald’s CEO expressed concern about Chicago’s increasing crime problem.

Comment by Bob Meter Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 10:47 am
Thank you Rich, for your efforts to combat the firehose of falsehoods coming from these propagandists.

Comment by Norseman Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 10:50 am
The Safe-T act is not a factor in the level of crime in chicago, nor will it be. Perfect example of being misled by the torrent of misinformation.

No question more needs to be done to deal with crime in the city and the state, but the safe-T act is a red herring in this case.

Comment by The Velvet Frog Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 11:22 am
The late Jim Morrison observed what was happening a long time ago, during his Miami incident trial, when he said African-Americans were being jailed because they didn’t have money (while he had money to keep himself out and fight the charges). He said it was eye-opening. In other words, he became woke.

Comment by Grandson of Man Friday, Sep 16, 22 @ 11:41 am