Opinion | Let’s say it plainly: Fact-checking is not censorship

This commentary was published in commemoration of International Fact-Checking Day 2024, held April 2 each year to recognize the work of fact-checkers worldwide. Angie Drobnic Holan is director of the International Fact-Checking Network. From 2013 to 2023 she was editor-in-chief of the U.S.-based fact-checking website PolitiFact.

A recent Supreme Court case put a spotlight on how social media companies like Meta moderate content on their platforms. It also put a spotlight on critics who say that content moderation — and the fact-checking that goes with it — is a form of censorship.

The Supreme Court case is primarily about the government’s actions in dealing with tech platforms: Did the Biden administration go too far in asking for takedowns of vaccine-related misinformation? For years, similar attacks have been aimed at fact-checkers. As director of the International Fact-Checking Network, I’ve watched this movement label fact-checkers as part of a “censorship industrial complex,” claiming that fact-checkers are trying to suppress debatable information.

Ironically, this deeply misleading argument itself is aimed at suppressing critique and debate.

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