On Friday, The New York Times published an article in which they quoted a “resident fellow for the Atlantic Council who studies digital platforms” referring to the conservative satire site Babylon Bee as a “far-right misinformation site” that “sometimes trafficked in misinformation under the guise of satire.”
The Babylon Bee’s CEO, Seth Dillon, responded to the charge on Sunday with a Twitter thread in which he wrote:
In an article about Facebook’s difficulty in dealing with satire, the New York Times points to The Babylon Bee as an example of a “far-right misinformation site” that “sometimes trafficked in misinformation under the guise of satire.” Here’s the section of the article where they quote Emerson T. Brooking making this claim. Booking is described as a “resident fellow for the Atlantic Council who studies digital platforms.”
Here's the section of the article where they quote Emerson T. Brooking making this claim. Booking is described as "a resident fellow for the Atlantic Council who studies digital platforms." pic.twitter.com/GsDOayh7uJ
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) March 21, 2021
Dillon continued:
No other examples of far-right misinformation sites are offered. The Babylon Bee is the only one cited in this piece. Notably, the words “trafficked in misinformation” are hyperlinked, presumably a supportive source. But the link they point to is another NY Times piece that actually refutes—rather than supports—the claim being made here by accurately describing us as a legitimate satire site.
Notably, the words "trafficked in misinformation" are hyperlinked, presumably a supportive source. But the link they point to is another NY Times piece that actually refutes—rather than supports—the claim being made here by accurately describing us as a legitimate satire site.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) March 21, 2021
Dillon concluded, ‘I’m pretty sure there’s a legal term for what’s happening here.”
I'm pretty sure there's a legal term for what's happening here.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) March 21, 2021
On Monday, the Times issued an update, writing:
But satire kept popping up as a blind spot. In 2019 and 2020, Facebook often dealt with far-right misinformation sites that used “satire” claims to protect their presence on the platform, Mr. Brooking said. [Updated March 22, 2021: The Babylon Bee, a right-leaning satirical site, has feuded with Facebook and the fact-checking site Snopes over whether the site published misinformation or satire.]
In July 2019, the Bee issued an announcement to its readers saying that its lawyers were looking into the self-described “fact-checking” the site Snopes had conducted targeting the Bee.
“Last week, Snopes fact-checked us again,” the Bee told its readers. “We’re pretty used to that. But this time, instead of merely rating the article ‘false,’ they questioned whether our work qualifies as satire, and even went so far as to suggest that we were deliberately deceiving our readers. Basically, they treated us as a source of intentionally misleading fake news, rather than as the legitimate, well-known satire publication that we are. This is a big deal.”
The announcement continued:
As you know, fake news—which is distinguished from satire by its intent to mislead—was widely considered a serious issue in the last election cycle. As a result, social media networks like Facebook began partnering with fact-checkers to try and limit the distribution of fake news on their platforms. Snopes was one of them. At one point, a piece of ours was rated “false” by Snopes, prompting Facebook to threaten us with limitations and demonetization. We made a stink about this, and after some media attention shed light on the problem, Facebook apologized for their handling of the matter and admitted that satire is not the same as fake news.
We came out on top last time, but this latest smear from Snopes is both dishonest and disconcerting. We have no choice but to take it very seriously. For better or worse, the media, the public, and social networks all look to Snopes for authoritative answers. By lumping us in with fake news and questioning whether we really qualify as satire, Snopes appears to be actively engaged in an effort to discredit and deplatform us. While we wish it wasn’t necessary, we have retained a law firm to represent us in this matter.
The Daily Wire pointed out: “Snopes’ ‘fact check’ of the Bee’s satirical post on the Erica Thomas ‘hate crime’ allegation framed the Bee’s posts as deliberate ‘ruses,’ accusing them of ‘fool[ing]’ readers, and questioning if their work should qualify as ‘satire.’ (Snopes also left out many publicly available facts about the Thomas case that undermined the Democrat’s claims.) A few excerpts from Snopes’ ‘fact check’ smearing the Bee — passages that have since been edited out”:
We’re not sure if fanning the flames of controversy and muddying the details of a news story classify an article as “satire.”
While this real-world incident stirred up a good amount of online anger, it wasn’t quite outrageous enough for the entertainment website Babylon Bee. In an apparent attempt to maximize the online indignation, this website published a fictionalized version of the story, changing the location to Chick-fil-A, a fast-food restaurant known for its CEO’s opposition to same-sex marriage […]
As The Daily Wire noted:
After coming under fire, Snopes edited out the most egregious language in its “fact-check” and added an editor’s note, which puts the blame on readers having supposedly “interpreted” their wording incorrectly: “Editors’ Note: Some readers interpreted wording in a previous version of this fact check as imputing deceptive intent on the part of Babylon Bee in its original satirical piece about Georgia state Rep. Erica Thomas, and that was not the editors’ aim. To address any confusion, we have revised some of the wording mostly for tone and clarity. We are in the process of pioneering industry standards for how the fact-checking industry should best address humor and satire.”