Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg plans to discuss with almost a dozen “conservative thought leaders” allegations the social media giant excluded conservative news from its “trending topics” section.
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A former employee has reportedly claimed the social media giant “routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers”.
Facebook has repeatedly denied the report that staffers who worked on the Trending feature were told to eliminate right wing items. He is instead planning to hold a session Wednesday where he will essentially “pat conservatives on the head” with a photo-op that is a direct testament to the fact that nothing has changed.
“They [Facebook] have had the same problem that many in media and Silicon Valley face: suppression of conservative voices and ideas”, wrote Beck in a Facebook post (of course). Among those that have been invited to join the conference are former Fox News conservative commentator Glenn Beck, The Five co-host Dana Perino, CNN conservative commentator SE Cupp and Mitt Romney’s former Digital Director, Zac Moffatt.
Beck said that while he supports a private business’ decision to run it as they choose, seeing an “Independent” Facebook would uphold American ideals of “freedom of speech and freedom of association”.
In the wake of a series of news reports last week suggesting political bias within the valuable piece of on-screen real estate Facebook calls its “trending news” bar, Facebook C.E.O.
In a separate blog post, the company said a series of checks and balances – involving both software formulas and humans – ensures that stories displayed in the “trending topics” section aren’t biased. “I’m sure we’ll find plenty to talk about, and I’m honored to have been included”.
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A 2015 study by Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation found that 63 percent of Facebook’s users – about 41 percent of all USA adults – get their news from the social media site. Facebook, now valued at around $350 billion, has become a bigger source of news for its more than 1 billion daily active users.
