Facebook has denied reports claiming it intentionally hid stories in the Trending Topics section of the website to influence political opinion.
Earlier this week Gizmodo accused the social network of political bias, saying that former 'news curators' at Facebook had told the website they manipulated the trending news module, preventing stories about conservative topics such as Mitt Romney and Rand Paul from appearing, even though they were organically trending among the site's users.
The social network's VP of search Tom Stocky, who is responsible for the trending column, strongly denied the allegations. "We take these reports extremely seriously, and have found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true," Stocky said in a statement. "There are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality. These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives. "Nor do they permit the prioritisation of one viewpoint over another or one news outlet over another. These guidelines do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics."
Facebook's Trending Topics column appears in the top right corner of a typical Facebook page, highlighting what subjects are being discussed most by users of the social network around the world.
Gizmodo said that some former news curators claimed they were in fact in charge of what appeared in the column, ensuring 'heavy' news appeared on the list even when there was little conversation around it. They said they were told to artificially "inject" selected stories as well as make sure no news about Facebook itself appeared in the list.
"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," Gizmodo said, adding that this is in "stark contrast to the company's claims" that the trending module simply lists topics that have recently become popular on Facebook.
One of the former curator, who asked to remain anonymous, told Gizmodo that the operation had an aversion to right-wing news sources.
"It was absolutely bias. We were doing it subjectively. It just depends on who the curator is and what time of day it is," the former curator said. "Every once in a while a Red State or conservative news source would have a story. But we would have to go and find the same story from a more neutral outlet that wasn't as biased."
Several hours after Gizmodo published the report, its editors started seeing it as a topic in Facebook's trending section. Gizmodo's video was posted under the topic but the "Top Posts" were links to RedState.com and the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
Facebook told WIRED that Trending Topics was designed to showcase the current conversation happening on the network and that it did not permit the prioritisation of one viewpoint over another or one news outlet over another.
"[Our] guidelines do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics," a spokesperson said. According to Facebook, popular topics are first surfaced by an algorithm, then audited by review team members to confirm that the topics are in fact trending news in the real world and not, for example, similar-sounding topics or misnomers.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
