Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News (gizmodo.com)

Michael Nunez, reporting for Gizmodo: Facebook workers routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network's influential "trending" news section, according to a former journalist who worked on the project. This individual says that workers prevented stories about the right-wing CPAC gathering, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, and other conservative topics from appearing in the highly-influential section, even though they were organically trending among the site's users. In other words, Facebook's news section operates like a traditional newsroom, reflecting the biases of its workers and the institutional imperatives of the corporation. Imposing human editorial values onto the lists of topics an algorithm spits out is by no means a bad thing -- but it is in stark contrast to the company's claims that the trending module simply lists "topics that have recently become popular on Facebook." The revelation comes amid a report on the same publication which claimed that a small group of journalists controlled and decided what should trend on Facebook. Also recently, a leaked screenshot revealed Facebook employees asking whether they should do something to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the president.

Comments

Re:good for them

[jeffmflanagan]

Blocking news on CPAC is in the best interest of the foolish Conservatives. Centrist and left-wing Americans benefit when more people outside the Conservative propaganda bubble can see how extreme and delusional Conservatives have become.

Re:In other news, water gets things wet...

[Ol Olsoc]

It does go both ways. But it certainly has tilted toward liberal control in the greater media outlets. At least most of us know the leanings of the major papers and can apply the right skepticism. I fear our younger generations haven't quite figured it out yet. I supposed I was that way in my youth as well.

What exactly is the definition of "conservative news"? If it is birtherism, Kenyan Terst Baby, or the right to deprive others of their rights via jeebus, BENGHAZI! or stuff like that, I dunno of we need to continually repeat that stuff.

What is conservative news? Is it what Fox News Represents? I'd like some examples.

I'd say that maybe some of the attempts by fairly hard left leaners to stifle speech on campus, and to label anyone they disagree with as whatever "ist" they are yapping about might be news for conservatives, showing that the left also has it's share of kooks. But I read lot's of that stuff.

But this would appear to be just more of the whining - so watch Fox News or build another network where you can report only what you like, since Fox News has now apparently gone Liberal. Because there is so much going on in the world, that simply deciding on what to report is going to show some sort of bias. Why not have a news network that only shows conservative only topics, blessed and showing the right viewpoint, instead of demanding that other people report only the news you want to hear. Then the truth will prevail as the leftists are shown to be the totalitarians they are.P> Do like Conservatives did when the AARP went too far left - they formed their own conservative only retired folks group.