Fact-Checkers Scramble to Suppress Border Crisis Stories

The scoop: Instagram flagged our post last week about New York City housing illegal migrants in a high school as “false information,” reducing its exposure on the platform — but removed the rating this week because the post is accurate.

• Why it happened: The rating was based on a “fact check” from the Associated Press targeting similar posts.

Why it matters: Illegal migration is hurting President Joe Biden in the polls as he runs for reelection. Legacy media outlets, which have recently been in contact with his campaign, are increasingly “fact-checking” immigration claims.

The story: The school held remote classes for one day in order to shelter around 2,000 migrants during a storm. Inviting migrants into New York City schools has become a trend, sparking community outrage.

Censoring facts: The A.P. argues that social media posts saying the school “shut down” are false since the closure was “temporary.” For this word choice alone, the outlet gave Meta the cue to suppress factual content.

• Playing word games: The A.P. has previously reported that schools were “shut down” or “closed” when they temporarily went remote in response to COVID-19. According to the A.P.’s own logic, this coverage spreads “misinformation.”

• We brought the receipts: Our post didn’t use the words “shut down” or contradict anything else in the fact check. The A.P. had Instagram remove the “false” rating after Upward News reached out — but would not explain further why the other posts have been labeled false.

Inside the censorship industry: The author of the piece previously worked at Newsguard, a government-funded “misinformation” tracker. The A.P. is one of many outlets helping tech platforms limit the reach of certain accounts with fact checks.