July 28,2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Social media company Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, fact checked a conservative organization’s post that was simply promoting the individual liberty to choose whether to take the experimental coronavirus jab.
The photo, published by Turning Point USA, shows a bandage with the phrase “Let me call my own shots,” with reference to the COVID vaccine.
“REMINDER: The Government Has NO RIGHT To Force You To Inject Yourself With An Experimental Vaccine! #BigGovSucks #SocialismSucks #Vaccine #COVID19 #USA #Conservative #TPUSA,” the post from the free-market student group said.
Instagram slapped a “false” label on the post, which blurs out the photo until someone clicks through to see it. The social media company links out to a “Lead Stories” page that fact checks an entirely separate photo about the legality of vaccine mandates.
Other Facebook-approved fact checkers have come to different conclusions about the legality of COVID vaccine mandates, making the “false” label a tenuous conclusion. For example, Factcheck.org, run by the University of Pennsylvania, has said that there is a legal grey area with many vaccine mandates.
Instagram has previously censored posts by LifeSiteNews, including one that promoted the comments of a Yale medical school professor on the benefits of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID.
While “Lead Stories” is represented as a neutral, third-party source for accurate information, it’s actually run by liberal political donors.
A National Pulse investigation in 2020 concluded that at least a quarter of the staff of Lead Stories regularly donate to Democratic Party candidates.
It also has strong links to CNN. “At least 50 percent of Lead Stories staff have been affiliated with the left-wing news network CNN, with a total of over 100 years experience at CNN between them,” National Pulse reported.
Turning Point USA launched a campaign several weeks ago to support college students who are fighting mandatory vaccination.
“At Turning Point USA, we’re going to give everything we have to make sure that students are not going to have to live in a medical apartheid because they don’t want to get the vaccine,” CEO Charlie Kirk previously told Fox News host Tucker Carlson.