A recent allegation by a former Facebook employee that Facebook censored conservative news stories in their trending topics has caught the attention of the US Senate. The section is supposed to display the news that people are searching for and reading the most.
Some former Facebook contractor employees were allegedly dubbed “news curators.” One says they were told to “blacklist” some topics that were of interest to conservatives.
Facebook has issued a statement saying that they never did this. They said that the topics come from the things that people are talking about the most. It is supposed to cover topics all across the spectrum.
The Senate Commerce Committee has gotten involved and are demanding answers from Mark Zuckerburg. Senator John Thune, Chairman of the Committee said:
“Have Facebook news curators in fact manipulated the content of the Trending Topics section, either by targeting news stories related to conservative views for exclusion or by injecting non-trending content?”
He accused Facebook of misleading the public because the news section is supposed to be neutral. He asked how the curators operate, and he wanted a list of what had been suppressed.
Facebook has said that it doesn’t exclude any news outlets, and it doesn’t eliminate topics.
Sen Henry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate, had this to say about the issue:
“The Republican Senate refuses to hold hearings on Judge Garland, refuses to fund the President’s request for Zika aid and takes the most days off of any Senate since 1956, but thinks Facebook hearings are a matter of urgent national interest. The taxpayers who pay Republican senators’ salaries probably want their money back.”
I agree. We haven’t seen any senators speak out against Fox News’s bias. Our Congress has A LOT more things they need to be discussing.
Conservatives are using this to cry persecution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN2bJJG_v8M
Featured image screengrab via YouTube
