Facebook workers have often omitted conservative political stories from the website’s “trending” list, the technology news site Gizmodo said on Monday in a report that sparked widespread comment on social media.
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Facebook subsequently denied the report, stating that they were “entirely neutral concerning politics”, and that their “guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives”.
Coupled to this was news that Facebook staff openly discussed using Facebook resources to stop Donald Trump being elected President; Founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg may have publicly said no to that request, but it’s representative of not only the power that Facebook wields, but the political bias of many of its staff and their willingness to censor and manipulate the service for their own political desires. “Nor do they permit the prioritization of one viewpoint over another or one news outlet over another”, a spokesperson for Facebook said. However, Gizmodo’s reporting, based on anonymous sources, suggested that the workers on the Trending team have more of a central role in the story selection process.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday demanded an explanation from Facebook after reports that former company staffers excluded links to conservative political stories.
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone confirmed the company received the letter and is reviewing it.
Stocky also says an allegation that the site artificially forced the Black Lives Matter movement to trend is “untrue”. “At the same time, our reviewers’ actions are logged and reviewed, and violating our guidelines is a fireable offense”, Stocky said.
Reactions on social media slammed Thune, arguing that even if the charges were true, a private company has the right to publish whatever news stories it wishes to.
“Reviewers are required to accept topics that reflect real-world events, and are instructed to disregard junk or duplicate topics, hoaxes or subjects with insufficient sources”, Mr. Stocky said. He says, for example, that almost 5 million people have “liked” NPR’s Facebook page, and are therefore directed to NPR content. He also adds that Facebook has recently started paying NPR and other news organizations to produce live video streams for the tech giant’s new foray into live video, which the company calls Facebook Live.
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Stocky closed by saying that “Our review guidelines for Trending Topics are under constant review, and we will continue to look for improvements”.
