X users this week launched a fact-checking “Community Notes” campaign to sharply criticize a recent Axios article after the outlet rejected the notion that Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposed “gouging” policy approach amounts to price control.
Readers on the social media platform pointed out that several other Axios articles – including one by the same author defending the Democratic presidential candidate’s new proposals – referred to similar measures in other countries as “price controls.”
“The same author called it ‘price controls’ when Britain proposed voluntary caps on grocery store profits,” part of the X Community Note said on Tuesday.
Harris announced last week that as president she would introduce a “nationwide ban on food and grocery price gouging” to prevent “big corporations” from taking advantage of consumers.
ECONOMIC COMMENTATOR WARNS HARRIS’ PRICE CONTROL PLAN HAS ALREADY BEEN TRIED IN VENEZUELA, ARGENTINA AND THE SOVIET UNION
Critics and numerous media outlets have sharply criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposal for price control policy. (Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)
The headline of Axios reporter Emily Peck’s article – as it appeared on X – was: “Don’t call it price control: How price gouging bans really work.”
Peck not only denied that Harris’ policy proposal was “Soviet-style price controls,” but also defended it by saying it was consistent with existing laws in the United States.
“If banning price gouging is communist, then the United States went Marxist a long time ago. Most of us live in states that already have bans,” Peck wrote. But as she noted in her report, these laws only prohibit companies from “inflating prices in emergencies.”
Peck assumed that Harris’ policy would only be implemented in an emergency. He wrote: “If a national ban on price gouging is structured like these local bans, triggered only in an emergency and targeted at specific firms, it is not clear that it would have much effect.”
DAVE RAMSEY EXPLAINS WHY KAMALA HARRIS’ PRICE CONTROL PLAN WILL NOT LIMIT INFLATION: ‘IT’S NOT SUSTAINABLE’
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, August 20, 2024. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
X users sharply criticized Peck’s headline and used the platform’s “Community Notes” feature to highlight the author’s allegedly inconsistent reporting on similar price control proposals.
The note included a link to Peck’s 2023 article in which he described similar measures in the UK as price controls.
At the time, she wrote: “Britain is considering voluntary price controls on staple foods as the country grapples with sky-high supermarket inflation. Why it matters: Persistent inflation is changing the conversation about price controls. Once dismissed as an affront to capitalism, they are starting to look more attractive – especially to politicians who want to avoid headlines about people not being able to afford food.”
The other part of the fact check states: “Axios called it ‘price controls’ when it proposed limiting how much Russia can profit from oil in times of crisis.”
It provided a link to a 2022 article by Axios reporter Matt Phillips, which stated: “Price controls were largely abandoned after the 1970s as both American and global policy moved toward less government interference in the economy.”
Phillips added: “On Friday, finance ministers from the G-7 group of major economies pledged to implement a plan aimed at limiting Russia’s revenue from oil sales, effectively creating a cartel of buyers to cap the price of Russian crude.”
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Axios did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
