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After Gateway Pundit posted a June story on Facebook that
included debunked claims of voter fraud in Arizona, a commenter
said the governor and secretary of state should be “fed feet
first through a woodchipper.” A story featuring false claims of
vote-rigging in Fulton County, Georgia, drew comments on
Facebook calling for an election worker to be hanged or “shot
for treason.”
For years, Facebook has imposed sanctions on Gateway Pundit’s
account to limit the spread of its misinformation. But Gateway
Pundit still uses its Facebook page to amplify its reporting and
raise money: The page features a prominent appeal asking readers
to buy subscriptions to support its “battle for survival.”
Gateway Pundit’s continuing presence on Facebook illustrates the
platform’s worldwide struggle to stop the spread of
disinformation and to balance content-policing with free-speech
concerns. Facebook has taken a barrage of criticism this year
from critics and a company whistleblower who say its practices
stoke anger and division to increase user engagement.
In a statement to Reuters, Facebook said it seeks to label
misinformation and “reduce its spread,” using fact checkers and
artificial intelligence to identify false or misleading material
and warning readers who try to share it. Facebook said repeat
offenders, such as the Gateway Pundit, are subject to tougher
sanctions, including having their posts pushed to the bottom of
users’ news feeds (the lists of posts they see), and being
barred from Facebook’s content-promotion services.
But Facebook almost never removes the offending posts or shuts
down the pages – that happens only in rare circumstances, such
as posts pushing COVID misinformation, the company says. Sites
that directly threaten violence also may be shut down, but
account holders are not held responsible for comments on their
pages.
Twitter has taken a more aggressive approach with Gateway
Pundit, permanently suspending the @gatewaypundit account of Jim
Hoft, the site’s founder and editor, as well as the account of
his twin brother, Joe Hoft, a writer.
Jim Hoft declined a request for comment; Joe Hoft did not
respond to comment requests.
Facebook and Twitter both have been blasted by right-leaning
politicians for what they call censorship of conservative
voices. Jim Hoft testified in a 2018 congressional hearing that
his site’s traffic from Facebook had tanked after the platform
imposed restrictions on the spread of the Pundit’s content,
saying such sanctions make “book burning” look benign.
Yet Gateway Pundit’s traffic has boomed: In the wake of the 2020
election, it peaked at nearly 50 million visits a month,
according to one estimate, illustrating the power of viral
disinformation. Reuters found the site’s often-debunked
election-fraud claims were cited in about 100 of more than 800
threatening or harassing messages sent to election officials
since last November.
Facebook has long recognized Gateway Pundit as a source of false
and divisive content. A July 2019 internal report on “potential
misinformation and polarization risks” listed the site as one of
Facebook’s “common misinfo offenders.” The report was among a
cache of documents provided to the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission and Congress by Frances Haugen, a former Facebook
product manager who left the company in May and has been a
leading public critic of its practices.
Reuters identified a dozen Gateway Pundit stories on Facebook
that contained baseless election-fraud claims, two of which
Facebook labeled as containing false information. Under four of
those stories, nine Facebook users called for the execution of
election workers or officials. Only one of those four stories
was flagged by Facebook for containing false information.
In August, Gateway Pundit reported that a Milwaukee official had
been threatened after being featured in Pundit stories alleging
voter fraud. The result? Even more threats. On the site’s
Facebook page, one reader commented: “There is only one
punishment acceptable for traitors, being drawn and quartered.”
(Reporting by Peter Eisler; additional reporting by Jazon Szep;
editing by Brian Thevenot)
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