Should Moderators Be Fact-Checkers?

Last year’s political campaigns produced an unprecedented need for fact-checking by journalists and the trend has continued since the election. For the most part they have been up to the task. When politicians, or others in the media spotlight, make clearly untrue statements in social media posts, however, should members of the moderation team become fact-checkers, escalating the posts to the site owner for removal or even remove the content themselves?  I think not.

Moderators of online communities facilitate respectful interaction and enforce the posted rules and guidelines set up by the site owner.  Those who break the rules are warned and those with multiple violations are penalized. That type of content and conduct are usually what is moderated.

Since site owners can set their own rules, though, it is possible for them to create a “no obviously false statements by those in the media spotlight” policy and have the moderators enforce it. So far, no-one has risen to that challenge.

It would be great if newsmakers told the truth, but the journalist fact-checkers will let us know how they are faring within hours of their provocative posts. I’m content to wait until that time.