Alex Epstein
Case #
6434

Facebook places fact check on author and energy expert Alex Epstein's post: Alex Epstein posted an image from his book Fossil Future that included images of several different sized pine trees, each with a corresponding note about its CO2 consumption being held up next to it. The text accompanying the image read "The fertilizer effect: all things being equal, more CO2 is better for plants, well into the thousands of parts per million." Facebook placed a fact check label on the post that only invites users to "See information from third-party fact-checkers." When expanded, the notice claims "Partly false information. Independent fact-checkers say this information has some factual inaccuracies. You can choose whether to see it." The note links to a fact check article from USA Today titled "Fact check: Excess CO2 harms plants more than helps them, experts say." The summation of the article read "CO2 has been shown to increase plant growth, experts said, but this growth has a limit. Adverse effects from excess CO2, like global warming, ultimately hurt plants more than help them." According to Facebook, users fail to click through fact-check interstitials 95% of the time.

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