U.S. - Popular fact-checking site Snopes.com confirmed Wednesday they are debuting a new "Factually inaccurate but morally right" fact check result for claims they don't want to debunk because they coincide with Snopes editors' worldview.
The fact-checking website will now label inaccurate claims that they deem "morally right" with the new label, giving public figures whose hearts are in the right place a pass.
"We were often running into situations were a truth claim was absolutely absurd, but it supported progressive causes," said one Snopes editor. "So sometimes we just called it a 'Mixture,' but then people might get the idea that our favorite politicians are being slightly dishonest sometimes."
The editor then said that upon hearing Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's recent statement that many people are more concerned with being factually accurate than morally right, the Snopes fact-checking team suddenly had an idea: they could label things as being morally laudable even though the facts upon which they were based are totally erroneous.
"So like, if someone says communism is the most humane political and economic system, like, there are facts that contradict with that, sure," said one writer. "But the person is obviously compassionate for wanting people to share and stuff. So we'll just slap the new 'factually wrong but morally great' label on the claim, and then people won't feel like they have to disregard the entirely false claim."
The new label has been used 17 times on Snopes today alone.