STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Several people reported to us that Facebook erroneously added a "Missing Context" warning notice to posts wishing people a "Merry Christmas". The notice included a link to our fact check about certain items that were supposedly in the "Stimulus Bill". We did not flag any of these posts as part of our work in Facebook's Third Party Fact Checking Partnership.
Here is an example of one of the incorrectly flagged posts:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Sat Dec 26 22:20:08 2020 UTC)
The notices were likely the result of a bug in Facebook's automated matching of content with content previously flagged by fact checkers. We have been told by Facebook they are currently working on removing the incorrect flags.
Please be assured that Lead Stories did not flag any of these posts and that we absolutely don't doubt the fact that the people who published these posts were actually having a Merry Christmas.
Updates:
-
2020-12-26T22:28:33Z 2020-12-26T22:28:33Z It appears the issue has now been resolved and the erroneous flags have been removed.
