Let me tell you about a little something called the Fact-Check-Industrial Complex.

Facebook wants to shut down, suppress, and curb the spread of worldviews, satire, websites, and comedy it doesn't like. We saw this clearly through the COVID pandemic, the 2020 election, and even now the Ukraine crisis. Any dissenting opinion or even light-hearted joke that pushes the wrong way is slapped with a misinformation label or a little pop-up box directing people to Facebook's official sources (that means sources Facebook's lefty leadership agrees with).

Indeed, we've had jokes deleted from Facebook. We've been threatened with demonetization and deplatforming. We've been told that our jokes incite violence and violate hate speech policies.

But Facebook doesn't want to come right out and say they want to shut us down. Instead, they pawn the job of labeling us as misinformation off onto third-party fact-checkers. Facebook funds sites like Snopes (previously) and USA Today (their current fact-checker of choice), both of which are in the bag for the left, to fact-check jokes and unacceptable opinions. Once we've been labeled as a purveyor of misinformation by USA Today, Facebook cites that fact-check to continue to soft-censor us, shadowban us, and reduce our reach on its platform.

Check out these ridiculous fact-checks by USA Today, and take special notice of the disclaimer buried at the bottom of their article about where they get their funding.

You get how this works?

Facebook pays USA Today to fact-check satire
USA Today fact-checks satire and labels us misinformation
Facebook reduces our reach on its platform

It's the beautiful circle of censorship, or as I like to call it, The Fact-Check-Industrial Complex.

All this means that we need your help.

We continue to feel the tight squeeze of suppressed traffic, artificially low engagement, and reduced reach on these platforms owned by the left. While we continue to expand onto new platforms that are friendlier to free speech and the right, it's not enough. The vast majority of traffic is still driven through sites like Facebook and Twitter, and they can shut us down with the push of a button.

Will you join the fight against fact-checkers and censors by becoming a subscriber to The Babylon Bee? The only way we've been able to stay afloat as censorship tightens down on the internet is from the support of our awesome readers. You also get access to an ad-free browsing experience, a comment section, a fun headline forum, extended, ad-free podcasts, and so much more.

And it's cheaper than a tank of gas.