AFT Leader, Politifact slapped with Community Notes on Twitter
Twitter Community Notes are essentially fact checks initiated by the apps users
Last week was a busy week for Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of the two largest teachers’ unions in the country.
If you missed the chaos, Weingarten spent a lot of time on Twitter trying to convince the public that despite all evidence to the contrary, she and AFT had been trying to reopen schools to in-person instruction during the pandemic.
Weingarten’s Twitter campaign began after she was grilled for hours by a congressional subcommittee about her role in influencing the CDC’s guidance for K-12 schools that kept kids out of the classroom. She also admitted to having CDC Director Rochelle Walensky’s direct phone number.
Catch up on that story here:
Weingarten’s tweeted video montage became her pinned tweet - but only for a brief time after a Community Note was slapped on it for lacking context.
The AFT head would go on to create multiple other tweets, pin them to her profile, and then unpin them again after more Community Notes were applied dispelling Weingarten’s claims she had tried to reopen schools.
After two or three tweets by Weingarten, PolitiFact decided to step in and it rendered a ruling that it was “misleading to claim she opposed reopening at all.”
PolitiFact’s traditional biased method of “fact-checking” is, by their own admission, based on their own selective “context” on any given topic.
That “context” almost always produces a rating favorable to any given subject or person PolitiFact seeks to protect.
Normally, PolitiFact gets away with it. Not this time.
PoltiFact’s “fact check” was almost immediately hit with its own set of Community Notes; basically giving them their very own “Pants on Fire” rating.
For more on PolitiFact being hit with multiple Community Notes, check out Corey DeAngelis’ account on Twitter.
More To The Story
Another tweet by Weingarten issued following her congressional testimony was ratioed into oblivion by Twitter users.
Being “ratioed” on social media is the ratio of replies/comments to likes. If one receives a high ratio of replies over likes, that post is considered unpopular or controversial but also can be considered as having demonstrable falsehoods.
Having been ratioed multiple times and then watching PolitiFact’s rescue attempt dismantled several times, Weingarten elevated the tweet of a former Bernie Sanders staffer’s attempt to delegitimize Community Notes for giving actual context.
While doing so, Weingarten continue to limit who could reply to her tweets.
Related:
AFT leader tweets video montage of her "truth" on pandemic school closures