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The United Nations is unhappy with social media influencers for not verifying the supposed accuracy of content with “fact-checkers” before sharing it online.

According to a new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), two-thirds of social media influencers don’t verify the supposed accuracy of information before sharing it with others.

“Roughly one-third of influencers said they shared information without checking its validity if it originated from a source that they trusted, while 37% said they verified information with a fact-checking site before circulation,” CNN notes.

This didn’t please UNESCO.

“[T]he low prevalence of fact-checking highlights their [social media influencers’] vulnerability to misinformation, which can have far-reaching consequences for public discourse and trust in media,” the organization’s report reads.

“The prevalent lack of rigorous critical evaluation of information highlights an urgent need to enhance creators’ media and information literacy skills, including identifying and using reliable fact-checking resources,” the report continues.

UNESCO has responded to these findings by teaming up with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas to offer an online course that teaches “how to be a trusted voice online.” The course reportedly revolves around learning “fact-checking.”

“It aims to empower content creators to address disinformation and hate speech and provide them with a solid grounding in global human rights standards on both Freedom of Expression and Information,” according to UNESCO.

“The content was produced by media and information literacy experts in close collaboration with leading influencers around the world to directly address the reality of situations experienced by digital content creators,” the course’s description continues.

The problem with all this, of course, is that establishment/mainstream “fact-checkers” are usually anything but reliable. Recall that they are the ones who claimed the Hunter Biden laptop wasn’t real and that COVID-19 didn’t originate in a lab in Wuhan, China.

Just a couple of months back, for instance, Time magazine published a supposed “fact-check” of then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s claim that his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, supported taxpayer-funded sex-change operations for criminal aliens:

“The former President … falsely claimed that Harris ‘wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison,’” Time magazine claimed in its supposed “fact-check.”

But within hours of publishing the “fact-check,” Time updated its report with a hilarious addition: A correction in which the magazine admitted to having predictably gotten its “fact-check” wrong.

Look:

“The original version of this story mischaracterized as false Donald Trump’s statement accusing Kamala Harris of supporting ‘transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison,’” the correction read.

“As a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris filled out a questionnaire saying she supported taxpayer-funded gender transition treatment for detained immigrants,” it continued.

Now, while it’s true Time deserved some credit for issuing a correction, most critics maintained that it should have never published a lie about Trump in the first place — and that it wouldn’t have if it was staffed by actual journalists and not propagandists.

“Same old story,” one critic tweeted. “Lie, gaslight, then correct it quietly and secretly. How many times do Americans have to see the same playbook to know the game by now?”

“This right here is exactly why people do not trust the mainstream media,” another critic added.

Exactly. Yet organizations like UNESCO are hellbent on forcing social media influencers and others to rely on these same sources for their supposed “fact-checking.”

This isn’t to say the mainstream press and its “fact-checkers” always get the news wrong. But it is to stress that the idea that they should be wholly reliant on these sources is ridiculous.

Vivek Saxena
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