Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

Didn't you get the memo? New isn't the reporting of topical facts. Facts don't exist. Just party positions.

 

And the Daily Caller and Breitbart and the National Review, etc.

 

Well my most trusted news source, Facebook, has to be crossed off the list now! Damn

 

Funny thing is, the only people who would probably end up seeing those dumpsites and psuedoblogs are total wingnuts who share things like this with each other:



Kind of weird Facebook would do this. Just let the babies have their bottle.

 

I have noticed when a conservative friend posts a polarizing, anti liberal, or sometimes factually incorrect link or article, The "similar stories" content below it would often be a completely left leaning counterpoint to the article that was posted .

For example one friend was going on and on about liberal flag burners at a rally, and the similar stories content showed ranchers and farmers and Marines holding the flag upside down in a disrespectful way to show their discontent with Obama. It's almost as if Facebook was giving ammunition to those who disagreed with the article in the first place

 

Why does Facebook have an obligation to be unbiased any moreso than Fox News or MSNBC or DailyKos or Breitbart or Drudge Report?

 

Wouldn't be able to tell as 80% of my news feed is about Obama's similarities to Adolf Hitler and how soon he is going to instill Marshall law and take away all our firearms.

Obama got some work to do with his remaining months in office.

 

People take FB seriously?

 

If it's an opportunity to feed FACTLESS ANGRY PERSECUTION SYNDROME! (FAPS!)... apparently so, yes.

 

Shouldnt they be allowed to run their company how they wish? Conservatives can make their own social media site.

 

It's a private company, if you don't like their practices, don't use them or start your own.

You won't catch me ever looking FAUX "news".

 

With 'currently trending' I think there is an implicit (if not explicit) promise that the consolidation is algorithmic and not subject to bias from curators. I think the allegation is serious and if that's what Facebook was doing then they've been abusing their customers. I'm not sure why people want to be so quick to dismiss the charge. I feel like posters here are engaging in confirmation bias because they don't want to admit a legitimate example of liberal suppression of conservative viewpoints. Don't be so kneejerk.

They're just removing dumpsites: if people are reading dumpsites, they should count.

They aren't disallowed from curating the news: they tell customers this is what is 'trending' so they lie to their customers if they remove something that is genuinely trending or seed something that is not trending.

If Breitbart and MSNBC do it, why can't Facebook: Everyone knows news organizations are run by people and those people make editorial decisions. Moreover, everyone knows they are intentionally partisan. Facebook is supposed to be run by computers and has not positioned itself as partisan.

If you don't like it, don't read it: That's fine and good now that people know its curated. Before, people didn't know it was curated so they were tricked by the company into thinking that was the list of subjects facebook users were actually reading about. Market forces tend not to work so well when companies are deceiving their customers.

 

I don't think this is true at all. In terms of the other news sites, Fox News intentionally makes their slogan "Fair and Balanced" - the very opposite of positioning themselves as partisan. Many of their viewers do not realize they have a bias.

As far as Facebook, does anyone really think it's run just by computers? They are always going to have editors/censors to make sure inappropriate things don't show up. Otherwise, people wanting to cause trouble could manipulate the system to push advertising media or p*rn or whatever else into the feed with some work.

That said, whether you believe them or not, FB is denying this:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/9/11...ng-topics-censorship-allegations-bias-gizmodo

 

It's a $342 billion company so... yea

It's a public company...

 

Oh, i know its a serious social media outlet, but, to look to it as anything more than that? Mind blown.

 

He's gonna grow his hair natural, bend down to pray toward Mecca and pardon Mumia Abu-Jamal any day now...

 

BY conservative news, they mean news that paints liberals in a bad light or conservatives in a good one. The employee who is spilling the beans gave examples. He/She mentions Facebook suppressing the Lois Lerner stories and stuff about Governor Scott Walker.

 

Shut down your facebook account then. Or stop relying on the "trending' sidebar for your news.

Either one should suffice.

 

I don't have a facebook account. Awesome post though.

 

Awesome or not, it's why there is no problem in this so-called story, and no righteous reason for more indignation.

I don't watch Fox News. They can air what they like, apparently.

If people don't like Facebook's practices, they shouldn't use Facebook. No one has explained a real issue here yet.