Image courtesy of The Verge
Facebook accused of suppressing conservative news
0
0
Several former Facebook workers, nicknamed “news curators,” reported that they prevented conservative topics, such as Mitt Romney and Rand Paul, from appearing in the site’s “trending” news section. In interviews with tech blog Gizmodo, they stated that they were instructed to manipulate the trending section by injecting stories into it.
In early 2014, Facebook debuted Trending, which showed “topics that have recently become popular on” the social media site. Leaked documents showed that Facebook switched Trending’s reliance on algorithms to become more flexible with human intervention.
“Depending on who was on shift, things would be blacklisted or trending,” the former news curator said.
Fearing potential retaliation from Facebook, these former workers wished to remain anonymous. One worker stated that stories covered by conservative outlets, such as Newsmax and Breithart, were deliberately omitted from the trending section.
In response, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally denied all of the allegations.
“We have found no evidence that this report is true,” Zuckerberg said. “If we find anything against our principles, you have my commitment that we will take additional steps to address it.”
Zuckerberg intends to reach out to conservative leaders in the near future to ensure that Facebook’s “platform stays as open as possible.”
