Donald Trump Jr.

Instagram
Fact Check

Instagram fact checks infographic shared by Donald Trump Jr. showing increase in cost of living under Biden: Donald Trump Jr. shared an infographic created by Digital GOP Leader Maggie Howell on his Instagram page, and it was fact-checked. The graphic, titled "How much more does it cost to live in Joe Biden's America," used data obtained from Markets Insider to show the price differences in five different goods between 2020 and 2021. For example, the price of 1,000 feet of lumber board in 2020 was $304, according to the infographic, but $1,500 in 2021. The price of one gallon of gas was $1.95 compared to $3.05. The prices of wheat, coal and corn were also compared to similar effect. Instagram applied a fact-check to this post, which claimed that it is "missing context." When a user clicks on the fact-check link, it links to a PolitiFact article titled "Yes, prices are higher under Biden, but recovery from the pandemic is key reason." Howell tweeted about this fact-check, saying that PolitiFact "came to the conclusion that yes my data is accurate but APPARENTLY there has been a pandemic going on and I should've included 'context'???" Fact-checks often lead to reduced engagement and reach of posts, though Instagram did not add a full interstitial over this post, only a link below it, which should mitigate the reluctance of users to engage with the post. However, Instagram's parent company, Facebook, has indicated that it reduces the distribution of fact-checked posts on that platform, so it is likely that similar was done with this post as well.

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