Check the Facts on Any Abortion News You See on Facebook
As more and more states sign abortion laws, it’s no surprise Facebook is rife with abortion-related misinformation . This time, however, it is more than a handful of viral links; this is the vast majority of abortion news published on Facebook.
A study by Media Matters, released yesterday, found that most of the most popular abortion-related Facebook content circulated in April 2019 from right-wing anti-abortion news agencies. After analyzing 278 top links and 261 top posts, they found that 63% and 72%, respectively, came from right-leaning sites:
They also found that one site, LifeNews.com, is responsible for 20% of the most popular links and almost 24% of total link interactions. To give you a rough idea of the content of those links, here’s what the study authors said:
Many of the most widespread references cite refuted or misleading stories about abortion, such as the idea that Democratic politicians support “infanticide” by supporting access to abortion later in pregnancy. Twenty-three percent of the top right-wing abortion news-related links in April celebrated the adoption of the six-week abortion ban. The most popular link for the time period analyzed was from the right-wing Christian site The Stream, directing Facebook users to an article that cited an Ohio Republican who called Ohio’s six-week ban “the most compassionate bill we’ve ever passed. ”He has earned over 904,000 Facebook interactions.
All of this is as unsurprising as it infuriates, which could make you throw up your hands and delete Facebook permanently. If you’re not quite there yet – or if you can’t delete Facebook – consider this one more reminder to check your links before sharing. There are a variety of fake news removal tools at your disposal, from Chrome extensions to built-in Facebook functions and the good old Snopes and FactCheck.org . Whether you are sharing a link on your page or starting a fight with someone else, make sure you have the facts – there really is no excuse not to give up.
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