It’s been a busy and unique (to say the least) political season and I’m sure by this point there’s a good number of Americans who could probably do without further influx bureaucratic rhetoric.
Cutting down on that political jargon may be something Facebook is taking practice in, the problem though it may only be happening on one side.
According to the USA Today (via Gizmodo), the popular social media outlet may be deliberately leaving off conservative stories, notably those based around Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and former Fox News contributor Steven Crowder off the ‘trending news’ sidebar says a former Facebook news curator.
“I’d come on shift and I’d discover that CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference] or Mitt Romney or Glenn Beck or popular conservative topics wouldn’t be trending because either the curator didn’t recognize the news topic or it was like they had a bias against Ted Cruz,” the former news curator told Gizmodo.
Facebook denied the report, saying it has “rigorous guidelines” to ensure political neutrality in the distribution of news to its 1.6 billion users around the globe.
“We take allegations of bias very seriously. Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum. Trending Topics shows you the popular topics and hashtags that are being talked about on Facebook,” the company said in an emailed statement.
“These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives. Nor do they permit the prioritization of one viewpoint over another or one news outlet over another. These guidelines do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics.”
However another former news curator with Facebook said quite the opposite telling the Guardian that newsworthiness for Facebook’s trending news timelines was based on its popularity among trusted news outlets like the New York Times or the Washington Post.
Facebook has denied the censorship allegations.
