Facebooks only fact-checking service in the Netherlands just quit

Facebook is now operating without a third-party fact-checking service in the Netherlands. The company’s only partner, Dutch newspaper NU.nl, just quit over a dispute regarding the social network’s policy to allow politicians to run ads containing misinformation.

“What is the point of fighting fake news if you are not allowed to tackle politicians?” asked NU.nl’s editor-in-chief Gert-Jaap Hoekman in a blog post announcing the decision. “Let one thing be clear: we stand behind the content of our fact checks.”

The conflict began in May when Facebook intervened in NU.nl’s decision to label an ad from the Dutch politician Esther de Lange as unsubstantiated. The ad’s claim, that 10 percent of farmland in Romania is owned by non-Europeans,...

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