'Fact-checkers' place notices on conservative accounts highlighting armed IRS training

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File

Fact-checkers on Facebook have placed censorship notices on claims that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service is seeking to arm its agents to use deadly force. 

Declaring the claim to be “partly false information,” fact-checkers slapped the Heritage Foundation and Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) with the censorship notice after the two groups posted about the issue on Facebook. 

As detailed by Summit News, the tech giant used a “fact-check” by Lead Stories that effectively blacklisted both posts on Facebook. Fact-checks serve as a means for establishment media organizations and Big Tech to subversively censor conservative voices. 

Articles and accounts hit by fact checks are buried by the algorithm and are otherwise suppressed, preventing them from being viewed by a wide audience. 

The posts produced by Heritage Foundation and YAL were made in response to an IRS job posting that announced that the agency was looking to hire agents who are tasked to “carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.” 

Following widespread outrage on Twitter, the IRS deleted the job posting. 

Shortly after the job listing was deleted, IRS training videos and documents detailing simulated assaults on suburban homes by IRS agents surfaced on social media. 

“Fact Check: IRS Is NOT Trying To Arm All Its Agents” claimed Lead Stories. 

Despite the fact check from Lead Stories, the Heritage Foundation never explicitly stated that the IRS was arming all of its agents. Indeed, both the YAL and Heritage Foundation only noted that the government wanted to arm its IRS agents and disarm citizens. 

Reclaim the Net reported: 

In its article, Lead Stories singles out pro-liberty youth organization Young Americans for Liberty (YAL). The youth group posted a screenshot of the original job posting, and wrote: “The IRS is hiring! The government wants its IRS agents armed and its citizens disarmed. We’ll let everyone just marinate on that for a second.” 

Lead Stories tried to make it look like YAL said the IRS is arming all of its employees. “Is the IRS trying to arm all its employees?” asked Lead Stories. “No, that’s not true: A job posting from the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, which carries firearms, does refer to carrying firearms.” 

Facebook slapped the post by YAL with a “partly false information” label.