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Mark Zuckerberg: 'No Evidence' Facebook Staff Suppressed Stories With Conservative Viewpoints (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Mark Zuckerberg has issued a statement in response to the controversy alleging that Facebook staff intentionally prevented stories with a conservative viewpoint from appearing in the site's Trending Topics section. "We take this report very seriously and are conducting a full investigation to ensure our teams upheld the integrity of this product," Zuckerberg writes on Facebook. "We have found no evidence that this report is true. If we find anything against our principles, you have my commitment that we will take additional steps to address it." Zuckerberg says he will invite "leading conservatives and people from across the political spectrum" to discuss the matter in the coming weeks, with the aim of having a "direct conversation about what Facebook stands for and how we can be sure our platform stays as open as possible." Earlier today, more evidence surfaced to support Gawker's two recent reports that claimed editors manipulate the trending news. Facebook published a blog post explaining how Trending Topics on its platform works, insisting there's no discrimination against sources of any political origin.

4 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. The evidence was wiped, like with a cloth! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "There's not a smidgen of evidence that (FB suppressed conservative stories|the IRS targeted conservative groups|Hillary Clinton leaked classified information to the Russians and Chinese through her insecure email server). We made sure to delete it all."

  2. Re:Zuckerman suppresses evidence? by mellon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It would be the salvation of the GOP. The GOP was actually a useful party back when we had the fairness doctrine. Bunch of stuffed shirts, but they got shit done and cooperated with Democrats.

  3. BS 102 by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Zuck doesn't quite know how to bullshit properly.

    The BSC* answer is, "We found no specific evidence of politically-biased re-ranking of stories. However, we did discover that the ranking process was not carefully managed and monitored enough, and are now putting in place procedures and cross-checks to prevent any future bias".

    In short, it blames any problems later discovered on rogue underlings who were not watched well enough.

    I don't claim to be an intentional expert on bullshit, I just witnessed too much over the years in Dilbertville, often as the underling scapegoat.

    * Bullshit-Correct

  4. Re:Zuckerman suppresses evidence? by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Uh. You might want to go back and re-read some stuff...like facts. It's the democrats who liked the fairness doctrine, and it was them most recently who tried to get it back in several times in fact. I picked two left-leaning sources. So have some right leaning sources as well. The GOP has been fundamentally against that.

    One also can't forget that it was Zuckerburg that threw the hissyfit over "all lives matter" because people think that "black lives matter" is BS.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...